India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has acknowledged that his side is blessed with adequate time for preparation ahead of this month's Boxing Day (Dec 26) Test against Australia. "If 12 days are not enough to prepare (for Australia), then even a month won't be," Dhoni told reporters on the eve of today's first practice tie against the CA Chairman's XI here at the Manuka Oval.
No excusesHaving said that Dhoni has also established that his team will be left with no excuses if they were to suffer the same fate they did in England earlier this year, once the Test series concludes in the last week of January.
"It's good to be here. It's a nice place to play cricket. We have to make the most of these practice games (Dec 15-16 & Dec 19-21). It's good that we have enough time to practice to be at our best (when the Tests begin).
These warm-up games are very important, to see how well we adapt to the conditions," added Dhoni. The skipper revealed that the management has planned to give all 17 members of the squad a look-in before the first Test.
"That's what the plan is (to give everyone a look-in). We are treating these as proper matches. We can't really control what will happen on the field, but we'd like to give youngsters an opportunity to start off (the tour). Of [...]
Submit your suggestion / comments / complaints / Takedown request on lookyp.com@gmail.com