India begin their tour of Australia without the guidance of their hugely influential director of cricket Ravi Shastri who is going to skip at least the first warm-up match beginning on Monday. In fact, the Virat Kohli-led 18-member squad were pretty much mentor-less when they touched down as coach Duncan Fletcher too wasn’t with the team. He is expected to be with the team when the they take on Cricket Australia Invitational XI in Adelaide for a two day fixture.

Played down the absence of the coach and the team director, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel offered said:

“Shastri will join the team later this week, and I don’t think that’s a major issue. In any case, his work begins when the Test match approaches. We’ve sent the boys a little early to help them get over the jet lag,” Patel said.

Incidentally, Shastri’s first match in his current role as the team’s director of cricket was a warm-up game — against Middlesex before the ODI series against England.

“As for Duncan Fletcher, his wife is not keeping well. So he asked for a few days of leave to return to South Africa after the home series against Sri Lanka. We granted him the leave on humanitarian grounds. He will be joining the squad, directly from South Africa, tomorrow morning,” Patel told The Indian Express.

The rest of the support staff, assistant coaches Sanjay Bangar and Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar, are with the team. India will play two warm-up matches before the first Test, starting at the Gabba from December 4.