India coach Ravi Shastri has stated that he has requested the BCCI to arrange two warm-up games for the team when they tour Australia at the end of the year.

The Indian team has received plenty of flak in recent times for their short-sighted approach with regards to warm-up matches in their overseas tours. In their tour of South Africa at the start of the year, the team did not play a single warm-up match before the three-Test series which they lost 1-2.

In the just concluded tour of England, India played only a single warm-up game against Essex ahead of the five-match Test series where they were handed a 1-4 defeat.

In an interview with ESPNCricinfo, Shastri pointed towards team India’s hectic international schedule as one of the reasons for scheduling so few warm-up matches.

“If you have two or three games against weaker sides we don’t mind because it is a game. But when you have a schedule as tight as this and when you have a memorandum of understanding that has already been formulated, with a choc-a-bloc calendar, there is very little you can do,” Shastri said.

Kohli and Co have been criticised for not playing enough warm-up games.

“Now, we have requested for a couple of (warm-up) games in Australia before the Test series. But is there space (to play those matches)? That is the question,” he added.

When asked if the team was averse to the idea of playing warm-up matches, Shastri replied: “Why would we be? You can only see the results. Every time after the second Test we have improved. You can still get better. But why can’t we be in that position in the first Test match?”

“Ideally we would want two three- or four-day games before a Test series. But do you have the time? For example, we have a T20 series in Australia preceding the Test series. There is a 10-day gap before the first Test. These are things that have been approved earlier. It is not in our control,” Shastri continued.

India skipper Virat Kohli had recently questioned the utility of playing warm-up matches himself.

India’s tour of Australia gets underway in November this year with a three-match T20I series to start things off. The T20s will be followed by a four-match Test series and three ODIs.