India and Kings XI Punjab fast bowler Mohammed Shami feels IPL 2020 will help the Indian players tune up ahead of the tour of Australia, scheduled for December 2020-January 2021. India’s last Test assignment was in February 2020 in New Zealand, while the players haven’t played cricket across formats at the highest level since the pandemic brought the sport to a standstill in March.

Though IPL marks a return to cricket for the Indian players, Shami reckoned they also had the upcoming Australia tour in their sights. India enjoyed unprecedented success on their previous tour in 2018-19, becoming the first Indian team to win a Test series Down Under.

“It would be great that the Australia-bound players are playing IPL,” Shami told PTI. “It will set the body and momentum perfectly by then. I feel it’s better that we are playing the IPL before a big series. Apart from the IPL, everyone is also focused on that [Australia] tour. There is a lot of talk about that series. We will have a good contest.”

Shami also revealed that he didn’t feel much of a difference coming back to action via a warm-up game on Thursday, as he’d spent a lot of time during lockdown bowling in his farmhouse.

“It has been a long time since we played cricket,” he said. “Everyone is happy like kids in a candy store after getting back to the sport they love the most. We had a practice match on Thursday, I didn’t face any issues. Everyone is getting back to rhythm. I didn’t feel much difference [as I was bowling at my farmhouse].”

With the IPL being held across just three venues in UAE, the absence of travel between matches has been a welcome change for the players. Shami felt there shouldn’t be workload issues through the season because of the current arrangement of the tournament.

“Yes, there’re [usually] back-to-back matches, training, travelling, that’s a bit of headache,” Shami said. “But it’s a short format, short matches, physically there should not be any workload issue. This time, there won’t be much travelling. You will have to travel just about for two hours by bus [when there is a match in Abu Dhabi].”

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