Former Australia captain Michael Clarke cannot understand why Pat Cummins' side is not playing practice or tour games ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series, beginning in India on February 9. Australia will be touring India for the four-Test series, with the opening game scheduled at Nagpur, and Clarke opined that not playing a tour game could have a "significant" impact on the outcome.
That's the part (not playing tour games) I don't understand," Clarke was quoted as saying by Big Sports Breakfast on Tuesday."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." Clarke, who played 115 Tests and scored more than 8,600 runs, added that playing 20-over or 50-over games in India was completely different from competing in the longest format, especially while countering spin."You need a completely different plan to what you have (been) 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 said.
