Captain MS Dhoni has suggested India will rest some of its big names for its tour opener against a Chairman's XI in Canberra starting on Thursday.
The first of two practice matches at Manuka Oval is a two-day affair and Dhoni realises he must manage the workload of his senior players ahead of a four-Test series against Australia beginning on Boxing Day.
Most of the Indian squad did not arrive in Canberra until after 3:00am (AEDT) on Wednesday, meaning a Thursday start might be a tight turnaround for the likes of Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Dhoni.
All-time greats Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, as well as pace weapon Ishant Sharma, were among a group of players who arrived in Australia last week and may be considered for selection from the 17-man touring party.
However, Dhoni must balance a desire to give his key men match practice with the fact the first tour match is effectively against a second-string Chairman's XI.
Dhoni might be tempted to save his stars for the second hit-out, a three-day affair starting on Monday, which will pit them against likely Australian Test batsmen David Warner and Usman Khawaja, as well as outside hopes Phil Hughes and Ed Cowan.
Wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, fast bowlers Umesh Yadav and Abhimanyu Mithun and batsman Virat Kohli have all played four Tests or less and are likely to play.
Speaking to the media in the team's first optional training session on Wednesday, Dhoni says he wants his young troops to gain confidence playing in unfamiliar Australian conditions.
"We would like to give our youngsters an opportunity to start off of course, some of us haven't played much cricket over here," Dhoni said.
"It's slightly different, so we try to make the most of it."
The Indian Test team is still licking its wounds after copping a 4-0 hiding in England in July and August.
India went from one disaster to the next in that series and Dhoni realises the importance of his team building its confidence up early.
"The first game always, if you have momentum on your side it always [builds up]," he said.
"You don't really want to lag too much behind right from the very start, so going with a good start is very crucial.
"We are here close to 12 days early and if 12 days are not enough then one month wouldn't be enough so we have to ... adapt to the conditions."
Chairman's XI captain Ryan Broad said his team will utilise all 12 players in its squad, but he declared one-Test player Peter George will have a licence to bowl as much as he wants.
George said the plan is to shake up the Indians and give them the worst possible preparation for the Australian series.
"We definitely don't want to give them a nice walk in the park," he said.
"Cricket is definitely a game of momentum ... and if you start to get on a bad roll it tends to snowball a bit, so if we can manage to do our bit to help the Aussies and peg the Indians back in these games it would be good."
Indian squad: MS Dhoni (c), Virender Sehwag (v-c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, VVS Laxman, Abhimanyu Mithun, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav
Chairman's XI squad: Ryan Broad (c), Cameron Boyce, Joe Burns, Tom Cooper, Alex Doolan, Peter George, Jake Haberfield, Josh Lalor, Tim Ludeman, Glenn Maxwell, Wes Robinson, Dean Solway
AAP
Tags: sport, cricket, canberra-2600, act, australia, india First posted December 14, 2011 22:00:04
No comments:
Post a Comment