'BCCI Receives Final Advice on How Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma Can Address India's Urgency Before BGT'

India had been set to play a warm-up match at the WACA in Perth against India A, who were in Australia for a red-ball series against Australia A. However, the BCCI made the decision to cancel the match just hours before it was scheduled to take place. This move was aimed at preventing any last-minute injuries, particularly after India suffered a humiliating whitewash at home against New Zealand earlier in the month.

India will hence undergo a match simulation in preparation for the long five-Test series with a centre-wicket face-off against India A.

However, Manjrekar, speaking to ESPNCricinfo, reckoned that India "desperately" need a warm-up game before the series as he highlighted the struggles of the India A batters, who were largely in form during the first-class season at home.

"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. It has been a trend in recent times that there are less and less of 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 said.

Manjrekar further outlined that Australia would be using drop-in pitches for the series against India, which could cause trouble for the visiting batters unless they get acclimatised to the conditions in the form of a practice match.

While the concerns around India's batting ahead of the series have largely pertained to Rohit and Kohli's numbers from the recent New Zealand series, where the scored 91 and 93 runs respectively, but the veteran India batter felt that it was the younger lot in the Indian Test squad who are more in need of a warm-up game, given it is their maiden tour of Australia.

"This time, the drop in pitches of Australia will have a little more life, so even more so. India can counter the fact that the team has performed better when they have been given fewer warm-up matches. In the 90s, we had many and yet lost 0-4 to Australia.

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 and Rohit would have loved to play warm-up games," he further added.