India and KXIP pacer Mohammed Shami believes that the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League will help the Australia-bound players to get in shape for the tour Down Under.
India and a few Australian players are expected to arrive in Australia just after the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the UAE.
“It would be great that the Australia-bound players are playing IPL. It will set the body and momentum perfectly by then,” Mohammed Shami was quoted as saying by PTI.
Virat Kohli’s men will feature in a high-profile Test series, beginning on December 3 at Brisbane. India are then scheduled to play a day/Night Test, as committed by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, from December 11 to 15 in Adelaide. The third and fourth Tests will be held in Melbourne (December 26-30) and Sydney (January 3 to 7) respectively.
“I feel it’s better that we are playing IPL before a big series. Apart from IPL, everyone is also focused on that tour (Down Under). There is a lot of talk about that series. We will have a good contest.”
IPL 2020 is scheduled to be held across three venues of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, comprising 60 matches spread over 53 days. Shami feels unlike in India where they have to fly all over the country for away matches, the IPL in UAE would be less hectic this time.
“Yes, there’re back to back matches, training, traveling that’s a bit of a headache. But it’s a short format, short matches, physically there should not be any workload issue. This time, there won’t be much traveling. You will have to travel just about two hours by bus (when there is a match in Abu Dhabi).”
