India's strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai reveals reason behind team's early departure to Australia

India chose to train in Perth rather than participate in any international competition during the first and second weeks of October, when the majority of the countries competing in the T20 World Cup are playing bilateral series. On October 6, a day after finishing the T20I series against South Africa at home, the Men in Blue left for Perth, Australia.

Soham Desai, the team's strength and conditioning coach, explained why India chose to travel to Perth for training rather than participate in any competitive events. He said the players would use the eight days to relax and fine-tune specific skill-sets that would help them perform at their highest level in Australian conditions.

"The upcoming 8-10 days are going to be very crucial for us, leading into the World Cup. We can't thank the team management and the BCCI enough for getting us these 8 days because, we always feel we are thrust into the big tournaments, playing so much cricket as the Indian team. But these 8 days, we are going to gradually build ourselves both physically and on the skills front, to lead us nicely into the first game in the World Cup," Soham Desai said in a video shared by BCCI.

#TeamIndia had a light training session yesterday at the WACA. Our strength and conditioning coach, Soham Desai gives us a lowdown on the preparations ahead of the @T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/oH1vuywqKW

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 8, 2022

It's going to be a good time for the group to unwind: Desai

Notably, after the conclusion of the South Africa T20I series at home, head coach Rahul Dravid had emphasized that India would fly out early to Australia in order to give the bunch of players, who hadn't visited Australia before, ample time to adapt to the circumstances. There are many new players on the team, who haven’t had the experience of playing in Australia.

"The goal in Perth specifically is to get some time on these pitches as well as to break the monotony of playing the bilateral series, back to back in India. So it's going to be a good time for the group to unwind as well as build on the specific skills that are required for Australia. That's the overall plan, leading into the World Cup," he added.

As soon as the team arrived in the city of Western Australia, India undertook their first training session. On October 7, the Indian team practised at the famous WACA. India's World Cup warm-up fixtures against Australia and New Zealand are scheduled for October 17 and 19 but before facing the two sides, India will face Western Australian XI for a couple of games.