Anil Kumble wants India to play more practice games during Australia’s tour

The legendary spinner from India, Anil Kumble, wants the Men in Blue to play more practice games during their tour of Australia, which is scheduled to begin with a tour match against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI, on Sunday, December 18, 2011.

On Monday, August 15, 2011, Kumble, who is also the president of Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), proposed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) working committee to somehow squeeze-in a couple of tour matches before the series commences with a Test match at Melbourne.

The Working Committee accords with Kumble’s suggestions and said, “Kumble said that if only one first-class game is fixed only 11 players will be able to play in it and he wanted all 16 touring members to have a competitive game before the start of the Test series by having more games. His suggestion has been accepted.”

However, the Committee asserts that it will be hard to include couple of matches as there is little gap between hosting West Indies and then departing for Australian tour.

Kumble’s recommendation came out in such a time when the Indian team and the management have received criticism from cricketing pundits. Many experts believe Team India was underprepared as they played just one warm-up match, that against Somerset, on Friday, July 15, 2011, prior to first two Tests. Experts reckon that the fault lies with the scheduling.

Indian batsmen became easy prey to English bowlers, who made full use of seaming conditions, as they have failed to cross the 300-run mark in this series so far. The Men in Blue also relinquished their number one Test status after receiving a thumping at the hands of England in the third Test at Edgbaston.

Team India lost the opening three fixtures of the npower series against England and now finds themselves at second place on ICC's Test rankings.

They are not out of the shambles as yet, as the Men in Blue need to draw or win the fourth and final match of the series, to be played at Kennington Oval, London, if they want to retain this number two status and avoid a humiliating whitewash.