Team India will have enough time to get used to the conditions in England: Zaheer Khan

The Indian cricket team played an extensive home Test season last year and it is now time for them to travel abroad and face the challengers. Virat Kohli’s team is at the top of the ICC Test rankings and the fast approaching tour of England is expected to be their biggest Test. They will play 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is and 5 Tests on the tour. Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan thinks the team will get enough time to get used to the conditions before the Test series.

A lot of emphases has been laid on the preparation time the team gets before an overseas tour and that was extensively highlighted on the tour of South Africa where the Indians didn’t play a single practice game. They will, however, start the England tour with the limited-overs fixtures and would’ve been in the country for a month by the time the Test series gets underway.

“There will be more than enough time to get used to the conditions. It certainly will give you enough time to get yourself acclimatised. Most players are playing in more than one format and the key players will get used to wickets and conditions,” Zaheer was quoted as saying on TOI.

Inconsistent weather

He was present at an event to unveil the Pro Star (U16) League Trophy and mentioned that the weather in England is unpredictable and behaviour of the ball depends pretty much on the conditions.

“One thing with England is the weather is not consistent. In overcast conditions the ball is going to swing. At the end of day you need the right frame of mind and right technique to deal with it as a bowler or batsman,” Zak added.

Workload balance

The Indian team management has maintained that there is a different pace bowling attack for different formats but guys like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah are playing all the three formats and that’s when the workload balance comes into picture. The former Indian pace spearhead stated that in his view the bowlers need to be smart and skip more practice sessions than actual matches.

“Workload got to be managed is a fact, but you also need to be smart about it. I have always emphasised that match practice is the best practice. If you are in a good rhythm then that practice session is not going to help you in managing the workload. But lots of bowlers want to bowl before the match for psychological reasons.

“I never endorse staying away from matches just because workload is high. I managed my workload in the nets rather than by missing a match,” the most successful Indian left-arm seamer stated.

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