Sanjay Manjrekar rips apart BCCI policy for India vs Australia Test after Gautam Gambhir bashing

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar reckons that a warm-up game would have been important for the Indian team ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Sanjay Manjrekar also claimed that senior batters like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli would have loved to play a warm-up match before the Test series.

India was earlier scheduled to play a warm-up match against India A at the WACA ground, Perth before the first Test at Optus Stadium. However, the match was canceled after India's defeat to New Zealand in the second Test at Pune.

India captain Rohit Sharma reasoned it by saying that the team will go through a match simulation rather than playing a warm-up. According to Rohit, match simulation provides India with a better chance to try all the players instead of the warm-up game, which does not allow a player to come back once he is out.

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"The lack of a warm-up game might make a difference" - Sanjay Manjrekar

Rohit Sharma claimed that the decision to cancel the warm-up match was taken by the team management as a whole and everyone agreed to it. But many former cricketers and experts did not agree to it and felt that a warm-up is very important before such an important series.

Sanjay Manjrekar is one of them as he claimed that a warm-up game will be important for the team. He cited the example of India A, which recently struggled against Australia A as they were not able to adapt to the seamer-friendly conditions during the unofficial Test series.

"The lack of a warm-up game might make a difference, especially this time because of the kind of form and confidence the team is going with to Australia," Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.

"It has been a trend in recent times that there are less and less warm-up games but on this particular tour, we saw that the India A batters struggle despite being in form in the Indian conditions. So yes, India desperately needed more warm-up games," he added.

India A's struggles against Australia A

India A struggled in both the unofficial Tests against Australia A and recently played at Mackay and Melbourne respectively. In the first Test, India A were dismissed for just 107 in the first innings and were then bowled out for just 161 in the first innings of the second Test as well.

The low scores in the first innings of both matches were the main reason why they played catch-up in both matches. In the end, Australia A emerged victorious in both matches, thus winning the series 2-0.

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would have loved to play warm-ups - Sanjay Manjrekar

Further speaking on the advantages of a warm-up match, Sanjay Manjrekar mentioned that the warm-up matches are more important for the younger players in the team rather than the senior players.

He feels that the experienced players might not need them as they know the conditions well. He further claimed that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma might have loved to play warm-up games.

"I think Indian batters are getting used to conditions, but this time around, there are many young players. Maybe the earlier team which had experience did not need it, but I think we needed some games here, and I think that Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) would have loved to play warm-up games," Manjrekar said.

India have a no. of younger players in their squad who will be touring Australia for an international tour for the first time. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, and Akash Deep are some of those names who are likely to be a part of India's Playing XI but haven't played an international match in Australia so far.

The first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be played in Perth from November 22. This match will be played at the Optus Stadium rather than the WACA Stadium. It is a five-match Test series and extremely important for both teams as they look to book a place in the WTC final next year.