‘I don’t understand’ - Michael Clarke perplexed by Australia’s no tour game policy ahead of India series

Former Australia skipper Michael Clarke revealed that he has been left amazed by Australia’s decision of not to play a single practice match in India before the much-awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The former cricketer believes that the touring party should have considered otherwise given the natural variation of the wickets on the subcontinent.

As per reports, the Pat Cummins-led side will be flying to India a week before the Test series, which is slated to begin on February 9 at Nagpur. Thus, they will not have enough time to prepare themselves for the series and the former captain is not happy about it.

“That’s the part I don’t understand. The no-tour game before the first Test in India. I hope I’m proven wrong but I think that is going to be significant. Batting in those conditions in one-day cricket and T20 cricket is one thing, batting in Indian conditions in Test cricket it is a completely different game,” said the 41-year-old as quoted by Fox Sports.

Clarke also believes that the Kangaroos need a completely different strategy to do well in the upcoming series and a lot of their success will depend on how they play against spin bowling and reverse swing.

“You need a completely different plan to what you have playing in Australia, the way you start your innings against spin bowling, the way you play reverse swing, through the Australian summer we didn’t see any reverse swing, the games were over in two, three days,” he added.

Man it’s extremely difficult to start your innings: Clarke

The New South Wales-born cricketer warned the Aussie batters that it is extremely difficult to get a start and then pace innings in the Indian subcontinent. He advised the cricketers to spend some time in the middle and to get habituated to the conditions, otherwise, they can struggle while handling the Indian bowlers.

“You need to bat in the best possible conditions (in India) because after that, if you haven’t grown up playing in those conditions, man it’s extremely difficult to start your innings."

"And if you get in you need to go on and make a big score because your first 20 runs in India in second innings, whoa, a ball that you go forward to and block in Australia easily against spin, over there can roll along the ground, can bounce and take your glove. You can go to block it outside off and it bowls you leg stump, natural variation over there is massive,” he concluded.

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