Former England captain Michael Vaughan has raised concerns about India's approach to the five-match Test series against Australia down under. The visitors landed in Australia a week ago but skipped the warm-up game and opted for match simulation at the WACA in Perth. Earlier, an intra-squad game between India and India A was planned while on previous tours, they had faced an Australian domestic side in the lead-up to the series.
Vaughan is surprised by India's intent ahead of the series and does not understand how the players will get into a competitive mindset before the series. "I can't get my head around a team like India only wanting to play an intra-squad game leading into a series against Australia in their own backyard. I just can't see how you get yourself in that competitive mindset of consequence by playing an intra-squad game.
"Time will tell. I'm surprised that this Indian side didn't want at least one game of cricket, and the WACA's the perfect venue because it's a similar pitch to Optus (Stadium), so you get used to the bounce. These players have a different kind of mindset to what we had, whereas we probably needed more games," Vaughan told Fox Cricket.
However, Vaughan also felt that the modern-day players might not need much of a game time before a series as they are playing for 12 months these days due to the hectic schedule. "They're playing 12 months of the year and get straight into it, but it'll be intriguing to see how both sets of players settle on that first day when they're playing the longer form.
"The modern player maybe believes that they don't need (tour matches). They think they get enough cricket throughout the year and they can react and just adapt. I just like to see teams win and stick a marker down," Vaughan added.