New Delhi: India are busy with the visiting Bangladeshis in an one-off Test which started on Thursday. By the look of Day 1's proceedings, there seems to be no real worry for Virat Kohli & Co as they have put up 356 for 3. But, the real test will start once the match is over, with Australia arriving in India for a four-match Test series.
There's nothing like a live game for match practice, and that's what the number one ranked Test team are doing in Hyderabad. Then, how about the Aussies? Early this year, Cricket Australia had revealed that Steve Smith and his gang will have their preparatory camp in Dubai.
And on Thursday, videos of Australian cricketers grinding at Dubai's state-of-the-art International Cricket Council (ICC) Academy emerged.
Here are some of those videos:
The Aussie players have been putting in plenty of work at Dubai's ICC Academy ahead of the much-anticipated #INDvAUS tour pic.twitter.com/dR9S3YxnIP
— cricket.com.au Video (@CricketVideo) February 8, 2017
Some serious areas from young gun Mitch Swepson! pic.twitter.com/AbP5CkxBTu
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) February 8, 2017
It's BACK. pic.twitter.com/zpz49xq2zT
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) February 9, 2017
It's reported that the staging of camp in Dubai has been devised to help avoid a repeat of Australia's disastrous 2013 series in India where they lost all four Tests. And the upcoming series between the two top-ranked teams has been already been termed 'closest thing to mission impossible' for Austrlia.
The academy – in which recently departed Australia national selector Rod Marsh took a lead design and development role – has two full-sized floodlit ovals and more than 30 grass pitches constructed on different soils from around the cricket world. During their stay in the middle-east, Australia will play two intra-squad matches, with the numbers made up by young players from the Pakistan Super League T20 competition being held there at the same time.
The first Test begins in Pune on February 23.
