Australia cancel training session due to unusable pitch
India easily defeated Australia in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India won the first Test of the four-match series by an innings and 132 runs, delivering a crushing defeat to the Australians.
Jadeja’s outstanding effort earned him Player of the Match honours in the game. Rohit Sharma was at his clinical best as well as he scored an invaluable century for the hosts.
After the game ended inside three days, the Australian team had reportedly expressed the desire to hold a centre-wicket practice session and the Nagpur groundstaff had agreed to their request according to The Age.
The groundstaff reportedly watered not just on the playing wicket but also the stadium’s nets, forcing Australia to modify their plans.
Australia are trying to make the best use of their time and practice on Indian pitches so that they can adapt to the sub-continent conditions. Coach Andrew McDonald spoke to Sen Radio about the need for more match practice. He said, “It’s pretty clear isn’t it, their intent with the surfaces they want to play on. We were expecting that coming in so as I said before, we’ve been really clear on what we expected. When we got here we got exactly that. They’re not naughty boy nets today (the planned session). We’ve got a big squad of 17 players so there’s different people on different training programs.”
He added how the team is preparing for the next game. He said, “There’ll be a couple of players from the game that will come down, so they’ll be seen at training. But it’s certainly not naughty boy nets, it’s just preparing for the next game.”
The second Test of the series begins on Friday, February 17 in Delhi. The pitch in Delhi can also be a turning track and it might cause more problem to the Australians.
