India to play shorter formats first during overseas tours: BCCI

New Delhi: Team India went into the first Test against South Africa just 6 days after their arrival in Cape Town. The under-prepared team lost the first two Tests and handed an unassailable lead to the hosts in the Test series. Though, India won the final encounter in Johannesburg but players and team management blamed scheduling and lack of preparation time for the loses suffered.

Taking lessons from the mistakes, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri on Saturday announced that the Indian team from now on will play shorter formats first before playing the Test series during overseas tours. Johri explained that the decision has been made so that the team gets acclimatized with the conditions before playing the longer format. The Indian team is scheduled to tour England and Australia later this year.

"Based on the feedback that we have got from the team management we had some serious discussions. What we are not doing is that in the summer India is going to England (and) before the first Test match actually starts, India would be in England  for over a month and the team would get acclimatized to the conditions. India will play the shorter format first and then come to Test matches," Johri said.

“In the next winter, India will be in Australia and again what we have agreed with the Cricket Australia is that the Indian team will first play the shorter formats and then play the Test matches. So the team would get time to get used to the conditions before they go into serious Test cricket,” he added.

Johri also revealed that the programme of the Indian team for the next five years would be known in advance.

“There is a four-year FTP (Future Tours Programme) cycle that we follow and these changes we have managed to do in the current cycle. But the BCCI has now negotiated that the FTP cycle of Indian team from 2019-2023, and every tour, this issue (lack of preparation time) will be addressed. For the first time you will have day wise and date wise calendar of the Indian team's programme five years in advance. So you will exactly know over the next five years where you will be.” the BCCI CEO said.