India head coach Ravi Shastri is hoping his men can learn from their experiences in the past tours when they take on Australia across all three formats.
India are still search for their maiden Test series win in Australia and will have the chance to do that in the coming weeks.
The visit to Australia is the third big overseas for India in recent times after their sojourns to South Africa and England. Virat Kohli and his men were beaten 2-1 by the Proteas before being handed a 4-1 thrashing in England.
Shastri wants India to learn from their experiences in the two losses to put their best foot forward in Australia.
“If they learn from the mistakes they’ve made in some of the earlier tours, it should stand them in good stead,” he stated on the team’s arrival in Australia.
“The endeavor is to get better when you go overseas, and when you look at teams that travel now around the world, there aren’t too many sides (that have won consistently).
“Australia did it for a while in the ’90s, turn of the century, South Africa did it for a while, but other than them two, if you look at the last five, six years, you tell me which team has travelled well.”
Windy, cloudy and a slight nip in the air. #TeamIndia begin preparations at the Gabba ahead of the 1st T20I against Australia. pic.twitter.com/vGniH7ZA4N
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 18, 2018
The hosts will have to make do without the services of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft for the clashes against India as they continue to serve the bans handed out to them by Cricket Australia. Shastri, however, refused to write off Australia despite the absence of such key men.
“I don’t think so (that Australia are weak). I always believe no team is weak at home,” the India coach said.
“We might have three or four players not playing when a team comes to India God forbid but if anyone thinks it’s a weak team, you will be surprised.
“We will be taking no prisoners but are focusing on our game rather than what is happening outside.”
Australia and India will first square off in the three-match T20 series which gets underway on November 21 at Brisbane. The two sides will meet in a four-Test series which will begin at the Adelaide Oval on December 6. A three-match ODI series will then culminate India’s tour of Australia.
