{"id":844286,"date":"2026-08-05T10:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844286\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:22:11","slug":"australian-cricket-coach-andrew-mcdonald-says-no-tour-matches-before-2027-india-test-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844286\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian cricket coach Andrew McDonald says no tour matches before 2027 India Test series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia will again opt for a training camp ahead of the five-Test tour of India rather than play \u200ba traditional warm-up match before attempting to end a 22-year wait for a Test series victory on the subcontinent.<\/p>\n

Australia also chose not to play a tour match before \u200bthe 2023 series, \u200cinstead training on specially prepared, spin-friendly pitches in Bengaluru before the opening Test.<\/p>\n

The decision drew scrutiny after India won the Nagpur opener by an innings \u200cand 132 runs, setting the tone for a 2-1 series \u2060victory that allowed the hosts to retain the Border-Gavaskar \u200cTrophy.<\/p>\n

Ifs, buts and maybes for Australia in India<\/a><\/p>\n

The record books will show that Australia\u00a0left India without the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but the series defeat offers plenty of opportunity for introspection ahead of the Ashes.<\/p>\n

Head coach Andrew McDonald \u200bsaid Australia would scout \u200ca location to immerse themselves in conditions similar to India before the series opener in Nagpur starting on January 21.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a couple of options there,” he told Cricket Australia website Cricket.com.au \u200bon \u200cWednesday.<\/p>\n

“We have gone to the UAE previously and we have also gone into India last time into Bengaluru, so we’re \u2060just working through what that \u200cwould look like in terms \u200cof how we then manage the individuals.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

Australia has not won a Test \u200cseries in India since 2004 when Adam Gilchrist’s side triumphed 2-1.<\/p>\n

Australia have a gruelling schedule before they \u200carrive in \u200bIndia, with a \u2060two-Test home series starting against Bangladesh in Darwin next week followed by a three-Test tour of South Africa in October and another four-Test home series against New Zealand from December \u20609.<\/p>\n

Fast bowler Michael Neser has been ruled out of the Bengaluru series with a \u200ccalf strain suffered \u200cat training in Brisbane but McDonald said wicketkeeper-batter \u200bJosh Inglis was expected to be available after recovering from a back spasm.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia will again opt for a training camp ahead of the five-Test tour of India rather than play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[91335,64,63,3181,740,1209,1463,9672,588,85,231,174097],"class_list":["post-844286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-andrew-mcdonald","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-coach","tag-cricket","tag-india","tag-no","tag-series","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-test","tag-tour-match"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}