Focus on New Zealand tour is more about four-day cricket, explains Rahul Dravid

The India A team will be touring New Zealand this month for unofficial Tests and one-dayers under the guidance of coach Rahul Dravid. Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Prithvi Shaw, Parthiv Patel and Hanuma Vihari are some of the Test regulars who have been included in the India A squad for the tour to New Zealand which is scheduled before the Test series in Australia. All these players have been selected in the Indian team for the Test series in Australia starting from December 6 while the first unofficial Test will be played at Mount Maunganui from November 16.

Dravid is of the opinion that although playing conditions in New Zealand and Australia are not the same, it will still help the senior players to get proper match practice and the team will give more importance to four-day games than the one-dayers.

"The focus on the New Zealand tour is more about four-day cricket and I think we are playing really good white ball cricket. I have seen this on the A tour over the last two and a half years. We have been really competitive and building a very good bench strength. The IPL really helps in that department,” Dravid told bcci.tv.

"I think it will be a very good opportunity for some of the boys who are requested by the senior team management to be a part of the A tour. They will be able to gain some match-time experience even if the conditions are not going to be exactly the same or it is not like being in Australia. The A team format is pretty competitive and it is match-time experience. It is a good opportunity in the lead up to international tours."

Apart from the regular members of the Indian team or the senior players, Dravid also asserted that the youngsters in the team will be benefitted by their presence. The Indian team hasn’t done that well in red-ball cricket off late and have lost series in South Africa and England in 2018. According to the former captain, organising these tours will give the cricketers more exposure and help them perform in overseas tours. 

"What we see nowadays is that there is not much time for practice or practice games in the lead up to an international series because of the amount of cricket that is being played. From Indian cricket's perspective by organising these tours, we can give the boys a better chance to prepare for an international series. It is exciting to have the senior boys with us. The objective for us is to prepare them for Australia and at the same time, the younger boys get an opportunity to share the dressing room with them," said the former India captain.

"It is really nice to be able to hold such tours just before the Indian team visits these countries. We are trying to achieve that with the A team programme. We are trying to have shadow tours. We did it in England and we could obviously not do it in Australia, but it is great to go to New Zealand instead."