George Bailey not surprised by India's failure to make tri-series final

Perth, Jan 31: Australian captain George Bailey is not surprised that India did not qualify for the tri-series final and said that concentrating on Test cricket before heading into the ODI event might have been the reason for their below-par showing.

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India failed to win any of their matches against Australia and England, finally going down to the Eoin Morgan-led side by three wickets yesterday in the virtual semifinal to get knocked out. However, Bailey opions all's not lost for the Men in Blue before the World Cup.

"Not really. India would have been concentrating on Test cricket for a long amount of time whereas the English team have had a one-day build-up bit longer," he said when asked if he was surprised at India not making it to the finals.

"India know they have another couple of weeks in Australia before the World Cup and they will just be building up their preparations."

The hosts will take on England in the summit clash tomorrow but Bailey said that the outcome of the match will not have any bearing on how his team take on the arch-rivals in their World Cup opener on February 14.

"The conditions are so different from here to Melbourne that that won't have any real bearing," said Bailey today.

"It'd be nice to win though, absolutely. We play every game to win. We spoke as a group before the Hobart game about winning 13 games straight as a goal. So it'll be great to win.

"England are a very dangerous side because they don't rely too heavily on any one player. They look pretty well balanced. They look like they have clear game plans, a good pace attack and they bat deep.

"I guess we saw that from their losing early wickets and still being able to post a good total, which they did against us too in Sydney. They have got a really good mix at the moment," he added.

PTI