Steve Smith said before the tour of India, we took the right decision not to play the practice match

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Sydney | Despite some criticism of Australia not playing a warm-up game ahead of the upcoming four-Test series against India, leading batsman Steve Smith believes it was the right decision. Australia have adopted a policy of playing no warm-up matches since their tour of Pakistan last year and this is being continued for their all-important Test tour of India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

He said, we will wait and see when we get on the field. I think we have taken the right decision not to play the warm-up matches. Like I said, last time they prepared a green pitch for us and we hardly faced any spin. Therefore it is irrelevant.

“We are getting better at our nets and trying to play the spinners better,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Smith as saying before leaving Sydney airport with the Australian team on Tuesday.

He practiced on the pitches at the North Sydney Oval last weekend. Before playing the first Test in Nagpur on 9 February, Australia also held a five-day training camp in Bengaluru to practice playing in challenging Indian conditions.

“We usually play two warm-up matches in England. This time we don’t have a single practice match in India. Last time we came I was pretty sure we would get a green pitch to practice on. But it was irrelevant.

“Hopefully we get really good training facilities, we’ll try to get better,” Smith said.

–IANS

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