Idea was to give lot of time to players to adapt, understand conditions: Abhishek Nayar

The Indian team has prioritized giving their players, both seniors and youngsters, good time in the middle during their practice sessions in Perth to prepare for the challenging Australian conditions for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Assistant coach Abhishek Nayar revealed the discussions with senior players and management about maximizing their three-day preparation window.

With India returning to play a Test series in Australia after a four-year gap and looking to make it a hat-trick of a series win, along with the crucial World Test Championship points behind the mind with the need to win the series 4-1 to qualify for the final, the team has planned for an extensive training session.

"Just before we came to Australia, Gauti (Gautam Gambhir), Rohit (Sharma), and we (the coaching staff) had a discussion on what we wanted out of these three days. And the idea was to try and make sure that one, for the younger guys and also the experienced guys, to give them a lot of time in the center to adapt, to understand conditions," Nayar said in a video posted by BCCI.

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The assistant coach further spoke about how the team got the desired results which they were looking for and that they were on the right track and right space of mind ahead of the long tour.

"We are coming in playing test cricket after four years, So on the first day, we got the guys to come in, had it like a game where you call out. If you got out, you got out. But then we tried to give them another chance second time around. We felt that second time around, the guys adapted better, they understood the conditions better, were a lot more comfortable. We got what we wanted out of it.

The second day was quite similar, where we then also were using the facilities outside, getting the nets in, getting the quantity and the quality down in the center," the 41-year-old added.

Bumrah bowled 18 overs for match-readiness: Nayar

The practice sessions weren't limited to batting. Nayar further explained that the second day of the match simulation was focused on the bowling unit, with seamers like Jasprit Bumrah bowling extended spells of up to 18 overs to build match fitness.

"Day two was about our bowlers coming in and bowling spells, getting up the workloads, bowling 15 overs each. Bumrah bowled 18 (overs), and a couple of others bowled 18. So it was just more about getting guys into game sense," Nayar concluded.

Recent practice matches have shown mixed results for key players. While Virat Kohli, who has been struggling for form with just 250 runs from six Tests this year, managed scores of 15 and 30 in the practice games, young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal impressed with an unbeaten 58. The team faced some injury concerns with KL Rahul taking a blow to his arm, though he has since returned to training, and Shubman Gill is reportedly ruled out of the opening Test due to a thumb fracture.