India A’s tour of New Zealand will be valuable match practice for the Test cricketers who are in the squad ahead of the senior team’s series in Australia, according to Rahul Dravid.
India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Prithvi Shaw, Parthiv Patel and Hanuma Vihari figure in the ‘A’ squad for the first unofficial Test in New Zealand, scheduled in Mount Maunganui from November 16. All six players have been picked for the four-Test series in Australia, beginning December 6. India A are scheduled to play three unofficial Tests and as many one-dayers in New Zealand.
“I think it will be a very good opportunity for some of the boys who are requested by the senior team management to be a part of the A tour,” India A coach Dravid told bcci.tv. “They will be able to gain some match-time experience even if the conditions are not going to be exactly the same or it is not like being in Australia. The ‘A’ team format is pretty competitive and it is match-time experience. It is a good opportunity in the lead-up to international tours.”
Dravid feels the youngsters in the ‘A’ squad will also benefit from the presence of Test cricketers. “What we see nowadays is that there is not much time for practice games in the lead-up to an international series because of the amount of cricket that is being played,” he said.
“From Indian cricket’s perspective, by organising these tours we can give the boys a better chance to prepare for an international series. It is exciting to have the senior boys with us. The objective for us is to prepare them for Australia and, at the same time, the younger boys get an opportunity to share the dressing room with them,” he added.
The Indian team is scheduled to play only one warm-up match in Australia ahead of the four-Test series, which begins in Adeliade on December 6.
“It is really nice to be able to hold such tours just before the Indian team visits these countries,” Dravid said. “We are trying to achieve that with the ‘A’ team programme. We are trying to have shadow tours. We did it in England and we could obviously not do it in Australia, but it is great to go to New Zealand instead.”
The former India captain also said the focus will be on red-ball cricket during India A’s tour of New Zealand considering his players play in a lot of limited-overs cricket as it is.
“The push from my perspective and some of the thinking and planning that has gone into is that we try and improve our longer format cricket, especially when travelling overseas,” Dravid said. “Keeping that in mind, we have increased the number of Test matches. We are trying to increase the amount of red ball cricket that our boys can get to experience.”
India have lost back-to-back away Test series in South Africa and England this year but are expected to do well in Australia in the absence of the banned Steve Smith and David Warner. The duo were banned by Cricket Australia for a year in March for their role in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
With inputs from PTI
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