Terming the 1-0 win in the unofficial ‘Test’ series against India ‘A’ as a confidence booster, Australia ‘A’ batsman Callum Ferguson on Monday said that the visitors have acclimatised well to Indian conditions and have the momentum with them going into the ODI tri-series.
Ferguson, who played a part in Australia A’s win in the second and final unofficial ‘Test’ against India A last week, feels that having played the two four-day games at MA Chidambaram Stadium will certainly help them in the tri-series, which will be played at the same venue.
“It’s warm here. We have acclimatised well over the last few weeks. Majority of our players are from the group that won the four-day game last week. We take a lot of confidence from that win. The practice wickets have spun and have allowed us to use our feet, practice the sweep. It will hold us in good stead for the tri-series. We are familiar with this ground and that’s an advantage,” Ferguson said.
“The start of an ODI series is important. It’s about momentum. The players who have joined the squad have come with lot of energy and we will inject it to the team ahead of the series,” he added.
Ferguson rued the fact that he was unable to interact with many Indian players on the tour so far but recalled his insightful chat with Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh while playing for Pune Warriors in IPL.
“We have had (Sridharan) Sriram our consultant. But we haven’t had a chance to talk to any of the other Indian players — (Virat) Kohli, (Cheteshwar) Pujara, (Rahul) Dravid — them. But I was fortunate to interact with a few players with IPL or who were part of the squad during World Cups. In IPL with Pune I was talking to Yuvraj Singh at Pune and Sourav Ganguly. Though they were left-handers, they were fantastic to talk about playing spin with technique,” he said.
“Technically they are both good players of spin. We are fortunate to have a lot of our younger players in the IPL. Travis Head has been in the IPL. But we haven’t been able to talking to our Indian players,” he added.
Having last played an ODI for Australia in 2011, the 30-year-old Ferguson is certainly eyeing a comeback in the senior team.
“When you come away with the Aus ‘A’ team you have a lot to play for. But we really endeavour to do with the squad is to bring in the culture of the Oz team and what they follow and really it’s about the team as much as possible. We all got individuals playing for something and obviously looking to make the next level,” he said.
“There are potential spots that are likely to open in the next three years. So every A tour is important from an individual point of view,” he added.
