Western Australian coach Mickey Arthur believes some quality training with his state squad will hold Test batsman Marcus North in good stead during the upcoming series in India.
North is one of the more contentious selections for the two-Test series, which will be played in Chandigarh and Bangalore.
Despite a strong series against New Zealand during March, the batting problems that plagued his last Australian summer once again emerged during the most recent series against Pakistan, when the 31-year-old posted just 36 runs in two Tests played in England.
Australian selector Andrew Hilditch, however, remains adamant North is part of Australia's longer-term plans for the upcoming Ashes, as his quality off-spin gives the attack a few extra options.
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"The guys have trained unbelievably hard and we just want to get out in the middle and play some games now," he said
"You can replicate pressure only so much in a net situation so now we want to take the guys out in the middle and play games."
"There's going to be a lot of competition for places and whoever wants it and puts their hand up can really stake a claim to start against Victoria."
Arthur also felt camp would be a good opportunity to trial tactics for the new limited-overs format, which involves sides playing two innings across their 45 overs.
"Strategically there is going to be a lot of work to be done," Arthur said.
"I think it's vitally important that we have two games so we can sit down and analyse it and look at our structure, see how we want to play the game and go about putting some plans in place."
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