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Xtra Time Web Desk: Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has said that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would have liked to play warm-up matches before the first Test match in Perth. 

As the warm-up matches before Perth Test has been called off, many former India cricketers have been expressing their concern over the decision. Now Sanjay Manjrekar has appeared into the scene. Speaking about the issue, Manjrekar said that India desperately needed to play the warm-up matches to get used to with the conditions.

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Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo, "The lack of a warm-up game might make a difference, especially this time because of the kind of form and confidence the team is going with to Australia. It has been a trend in recent times that there are less and less of warm-up games but on this particular tour, we saw that the India A batters struggle despite being in form in the Indian conditions. So yes, India desperately needed more warm-up games."

According to Manjrekar's prediction, the Australian pitches will have more grass this time around, which could trouble young Indian batters such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, and Dhruv Jurel have not played any Test matches in Australia so far. "This time, the drop in pitches of Australia will have a little more life, so even more so," Manjrekar said.

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He further added, "India can counter with the fact that the team has performed better when they have been given less warm-up matches. In the 90s, we had many and yet lost 0-4 to Australia. I think Indian batters are getting used to conditions, but this time around, there are many young players. Maybe the earlier team which had experience did not need it, but I think we needed some games here, and I think that Virat and Rohit would have loved to play warm-up games."

How much the decision will cost India, time can answer that only! Till then, fans have to wait and manifest to witness their team getting success.