Indian vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has admitted that the side goes
into the Boxing Day Test against Australia short of match practice as just one
warm-up game before the four-Test series was not enough to get acclimatised with
the conditions here.
"It's always better to have a few sessions before a big Test match (and)
we don't really have much time for practice," Dhoni was quoted as saying
in the 'Sydney Morning Herald'.
The Indian team arrived here yesterday and started their only
warm-up match against Victoria today. Dhoni felt the three-day game was just
not enough considering that rain was threatening to play spoilsport.
"You'd love to have more time, but that's too many ifs and buts. If it
rains there's nothing that can be done about it -- we'll go to the indoors and
have a knock, do whatever we can." "Getting used to the conditions
is very important, so the practice game is important, especially when you're
coming from a series in India," he said.
The swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batsman also said that the bouncy tracks in
Australia were a difficult challenge for the visiting bowlers.
"When you're playing in Australia, the length you're bowling
is very important, very different to where you bowl in the sub-continent or
England," he said.
India play their opening Test of the four-match series from
December 26.
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