Michael Vaughan calls on BCCI and Gautam Gambhir to take action: 'I'm surprised this Indian side didn't want...'

During India's last tour of Australia in 2020/21, they opted to skip the traditional warm-up match against Australia A before the first Test in Adelaide. This was a departure from their approach in the successful 2018/19 campaign, where they had played a warm-up match before both series. Despite their change in pre-series preparation, India went on to record historic triumphs on both tours.

However, Vaughan isn't very impressed with India's plan and said there is not the same competitive mindset when the players take part in an intra-squad game as compared to a warm-up match against a domestic home team.

“I can’t get my head around a team like India only wanting to play an intra-squad game leading into a series against Australia in their own backyard,” Vaughan told Fox Cricket.

“I just can’t see how you get yourself in that competitive mindset of consequence by playing an intra-squad game. Time will tell," he added.

The Indian batters are also going through a rough patch with the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma struggling in the home season and young batters' underwhelming show with the A team. It would have been a good opportunity for them if they got the chance to play a warm-up match ahead of the series.

The former English skipper suggested that India failed to get it right as they had a chance to get used to the Perth bounce if they played a warm-up match at WACA before they shift their bases to Optus Stadium.

“I’m surprised that this Indian side didn’t want at least one game of cricket, and the WACA’s the perfect venue because it’s a similar pitch to Optus (Stadium), so you get used to the bounce," he added.

He further illuminated the difference in mindset between the current crop of players and the players of his time, who needed more games to get used to the conditions.

“These players have a different kind of mindset to what we had, whereas we probably needed more games,” he continued.

However, Vaughan is intrigued to see whether the Indian team will be ready to adapt to the Aussie conditions without playing any tour match, which he feels was necessary.

“They’re playing 12 months of the year and get straight into it, but it’ll be intriguing to see how both sets of players settle on that first day when they’re playing the longer form. The modern player maybe believes that they don’t need (tour matches). They think they get enough cricket throughout the year and they can react and just adapt. I just like to see teams win and stick a marker down.”