Michael Clarke comes out hard on Australia for not playing tour games ahead of India series

Having suffered the wrath of losing the Border-Gavaskar series in India before, former Australian captain Michael Clarke knows what it feels like to be in this position. Slamming the touring team following their embarrassing loss in the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs, Clarke said Australia was not prepared for the India challenge. The first Test ended inside three days as Indian spinners wreaked havoc on the dusty Nagpur track with both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin returning with five-wicket hauls in the first and second innings, respectively.

Ahead of the marquee series, the Australian team management decided to not play a tour game in India, and as per Clarke, they faced the price of it eventually. Speaking on Sky Sports Radio's Big Sports Breakfast, the former Aussie captain bashed the side’s preparation in their lead-up to the Border-Gavaskar series.

Clarke said Australia wasn’t as ready as they should have been, and that by not playing any practice match or a tour game added salt to injury. The former all-rounder opined that India is anyway the team to beat at home and to see the Aussies going about their business in the first Test, it looks like Australia will have to do a lot more to achievethe result they want.

"I think the bit that gets me about it all is - and we talked about it before the series started - were they as well prepared as they could be? And the general consensus, if you talk to anyone on the street, is ‘no, they weren’t,” Clark said on Sky Sports Radio's Big Sports Breakfast.

“No practice game, no tour match, turn up ... and got dusted in a manner people are pretty disappointed about. Say what you want, they got smoked. India are a pretty good team in their country, but I just don’t think they were prepared well enough,” the former Aussie skipper added.

However, before the start of the BGT, Australian management staged a two-day pre-series camp in Sydney and upon reaching India they trained at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur before flying to Nagpur for the first Test.

Now, after going down 0-1 in the four-match series, the Australians are likely to make several changes to their XI for the second Test in Delhi that begins on February 17th.