Australia wicketkeeper batter Alex Carey is upbeat about his team’s preparations for the World Test Championship final next month, saying the decision not to play a warm-up game ahead of the summit clash can only be discussed in retrospect.
Both India and Australia will not play a warm-up game before the final, which begins on June 7 at the Oval.
After the World Cup final, Australia will return to the United Kingdom for the five-match Ashes series against England, which begins on June 16.
“During this (recent) period, the guys all went away and had individual programs.” We’ve had cricket players here in England. Carey was quoted by ICC as saying, “The guys at the IPL and some guys at home spending some time there.”
“Coming together now we really feel the excitement heading into the Test Championship and I think it will be a hindsight thing about whether or not we should have played a warm-up match.
“As a player I feel like we will be ready come that first match so I think it will be one of the things talked about after the Test match.” Australia lost the recent series in India but made significant improvements over the course of four games and even won a rank turner in Indore. The team has taken heart from that.
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“We learned a lot… to be able to bounce back (from two-nil down) to win in Indore (in the third Test) showed a lot of character, and then the last Test was a draw.
“So we walked away with a bit of confidence, knowing we were good enough in those conditions and there were just a few areas we would’ve liked to have cleaned up… and now the grand final is here; this is what the last two years have led to.
“We’ll wait and see what The Oval looks like too — there might be some grass on it, it might be dry — but it’s a pretty special opportunity to play in a ‘grand final’, so to speak, and obviously the Ashes is just around the corner, too,” he said.