Mission India: How Australia plan to break a 19-year drought

Mental and physical freshness has surpassed time on the ground as the top priority for Australia’s planners on the mission to win in India for the first time in 19 years, in a major shift away from conventional wisdom around Test match tours.

It has been a common complaint in recent years that touring teams no longer get enough preparation in the countries where they play away Tests, and it is often cited as a major reason why home sides tend to dominate.

But Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald, Pat Cummins and selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide have concluded that so long as enough days are committed to avoiding jet lag, it is actually better to minimise the lead-in period overseas and dispense with tour matches.

Australia celebrate their 2022 series victory in Pakistan.Credit: AP

That’s because it means less time away from home and family, a focused rather than meandering preparation, and the likelihood of a more mentally resilient team over the course of a full Test series: Pakistan last year being the obvious example.

On that occasion, the Australians chose deliberately to prepare in their own camp in Melbourne, on specially scarified pitches, before arriving in Pakistan less than a week before the first ball in Rawalpindi. A similar pattern has been devised for India, with a three-day camp in Sydney for all players not involved in the Big Bash League finals.

“No tour game is something we’ve done in the last few series, before embarking on overseas tours,” McDonald said. “We feel as though we don’t need that match practice as such. We’re going to go to India about a week out from the first game. We didn’t want to press for too much longer, in terms of the preparation.

“But we would prefer a centre wicket in India to go through some scenario training, and we feel as though with this experienced group also that have been there before, that they won’t need as long to adapt to the conditions.

“We can be creative in our own conditions. We’ve done it before with the Pakistan build-up in Melbourne. Dusting up wickets. Fit for purpose. Working with the local groundsmen who really help us in and around the country. We feel as though we can get as close to that as possible without necessarily having a practice game.”

There was a notable contrast between how Australia were able to perform at their best at the back end of the Pakistan series, winning in Lahore to secure a 1-0 victory, and how performance trailed off in the second of two Tests in Sri Lanka after many of the players had already been present for a substantial white-ball leg of the trip first.

In 2017, Australia prepared for India with an intensive 10-day stint on specially prepared pitches at the ICC academy in Dubai, before having another nine days in India ahead of the first Test match in Pune. A memorable victory in that game put Australia well in contention, but the team faded in the tour’s final weeks to lose 2-1 to a home side then led by Virat Kohli.

Possible Australia squad to tour India

• Pat Cummins (capt)
• David Warner
• Usman Khawaja
• Marnus Labuschagne
• Steve Smith
• Travis Head
• Cameron Green*
• Marcus Harris
• Matt Renshaw
• Pete Handscomb
• Alex Carey
• Josh Inglis
• Mitchell Starc*
• Nathan Lyon
• Ashton Agar
• Lance Morris
• Todd Murphy
• Josh Hazlewood
• Scott Boland
• Mitchell Swepson

*Green and Starc pending fitness

“We feel as though seven days is ample time to get ready and to make sure we maintain freshness throughout the whole four Test match series,” McDonald said. “We had some success doing that, going to Pakistan. We had a shortened period on the ground there.”

Australia will choose a large squad for India, possibly as many as 18 players, to balance the array of conditions likely to be faced between Nagpur, Delhi, Dharamshala and Ahmedabad, with fitness concerns for Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green.

“Yeah, I am confident he will be fit with the time frames I’ve been given,” McDonald said of all-rounder Green and his fractured finger. “The challenge will be making sure we can be creative in the way he trains to make sure his body is in order.

Peter Handscomb is one of numerous potential India tourists who also made the trip in 2017.Credit: AP

“But we feel as though with the medical team that have done an outstanding job in the last game, we feel as though we’re confident he’ll be ready for that first Test match.″⁣

In addition to Green, Starc and the 14 players in Sydney for the final Test against South Africa, the likes of Pete Handscomb and Mitchell Swepson (both participants on the 2017 Test tour) and Todd Murphy may well find themselves on the plane to India.

“Matt Renshaw coming in again in Test cricket has had some success there before,” McDonald said. “Pete Handscomb, no doubt, would probably consider himself unlucky not to be in that conversation for Sydney, but there’s another one coming back into the Test fold in conversation.

“We’ve got Marcus Harris also. So feel we’ve got Test experience within that depth. Some will say the age profile is a little bit older in those and potentially not as many youngsters in that, but we feel as though that experience is beneficial. There’s a lot of great stories of people having a taste of Test cricket going out and coming back in and being really successful.

“Todd’s putting his hand up with the performances he’s put on the board. Mitch Swepson performed well in the subcontinent previously. Sometimes the second spinner isn’t necessarily the best next spinner if that makes sense. It’s the one that complements what you have.”

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