Kings XI Punjab’s beloved ‘Lalaji’ or let’s just say Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami feels that IPL2020 will help Indian cricketers get in shape for their tour of Australia which is scheduled for December 2020- January 2021. India’s last test match was in the month of February 2020, held in New Zealand while players haven’t got a chance to play across formats on a high level because of the pandemic.

"It would be great that the Australia-bound players are playing IPL," Shami told a news media organization. "It will set the body and momentum perfectly by then. I feel it's better than 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.

"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 the rhythm. I didn't feel much difference [as I was bowling at my farmhouse]."

"Yes, there're [usually] back-to-back matches, training, traveling, 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 traveling. You will have to travel just about for two hours by bus [when there is a match in Abu Dhabi]."