India and Kings XI Punjab pacer Mohammed Shami has said that the IPL 2020 season will help Indian ‘players tune’ before the much-awaited Australia series in December. He also added that the season will be a great dress rehearsal for the players as well, who are eying to make a comeback by having a god IPL season.
In an interaction with PTI, Shami said IPL will set the ball rolling for Australia bound Indian players. He further added that IPL 2020 will set the body and the momentum by the time the series starts.
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“It would be great that the Australia-bound players are playing IPL. It will set the body and momentum perfectly by then. I feel it’s better that we are playing the IPL before a big series. Apart from the IPL, everyone is also focused on that [Australia] tour. There is a lot of talk about that series. We will have a good contest” Shami told PTI.
The Virat Kohli-led squad became the first Indian team to win a Tets series ‘Down Under’ in 2019. Shami too was a part of the side that made history in Australia. There is a chance again for the players to create history once again when India travels to Australia in December.
The Indian pacer added that its a happy occasion for the Indian players with the IPL happening as they will be getting back to playing cricket.
“It has been a long time since we played cricket,” he said. “Everyone is happy like kids in a candy store after getting back to the sport they love the most. We had a practice match on Thursday, I didn’t face any issues” said Shami.
Shami further said that with the IPL happening in UAE in just three venues, is a welcome change for the players. This would minimize travel, which was such a big factor had the IPL happened in India.
“Yes, there’re [usually] back-to-back matches, training, travelling, that’s a bit of headache,” Shami said. “But it’s a short format, short matches, physically there should not be any workload issue. This time, there won’t be much travelling. You will have to travel just about for two hours by bus [when there is a match in Abu Dhabi]” concluded Shami.
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