During the 2008 Indian tour of Australia, it has been planned that Australia would play a four-day warm-up practice match before the first Test match in October. However, the Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson, who is of the view that some more practice matches are necessary, commented that “It’s probably not ideal. We probably want a few more games before that, but that’s the way it is. We’ve got one game before so we’ll have to go back to our states and work pretty hard and try to do the best we can there to prepare as well as we can for India.” The Indian Board is unwilling to organize another warm-up match as it would cause rearranging the domestic itinerary. 
Johnson’s strategy
Out of the three Australian pacemen, Johnson’s position in the Test squad is the least secure. In the current series, his intention is to retain his place in the Test team. For this he does not expect any real assistance from the new ball. He is hoping to use the reverse swing as his prime weapon. He said “I’ve sort of, not given up on the swing thing, but I think in these conditions I’m probably not going to get too many opportunities to swing the new ball anyway, so that’s when the reverse will come into it for me. I had been working on basically trying to get it through the keeper and bowl the way I have in the past.”
Johnson’s competitor
Johnson has to face the competition of Doug Bollinger, the left-arm paceman from Australia. Bollinger has been continuously taking wickets in the past and due to this Johnson will be under tremendous pressure in the series against India. Bollinger has bowled impressively in some games in India, while he was representing Australia A as well as during the practice match at Jaipur.