Australia will be facing a trial by spin in the 4-match test series against India. The Australian team has failed to win a test series in India since 2004. This time the Australian squad has the potential to replicate the success of 2004.
The Indian spinners use the new ball efficiently getting it to slide and rush through the batsmen. Australian coach Andrew McDonald feels that Australia needs to be wary of the ‘slide spin’ and needs to tackle it.
“I think the new ball is the one that creates more of that slide and when the batters do get done on the inside. We’re preparing for that (during the preparatory camp in Bengaluru),” McDonald said.
Australia is getting ready to face a new ball against spin
Ashwin is always a threat with the new ball. He coupled with Axar or Jadeja can be lethal with the new ball. Australia batting coach Michael Di Venuto is making players ready to face the new ball against spin.
“That slide spin, we’ll expect the spinners to bowl early against our opening batters as well with the new ball so all that is taken care of in the training environment, and (batting coach) Diva (Michael Di Venuto) does a fantastic job in preparing.
This time the Australia team is clear in their method which will vary from individual to individual.
“The key to success there is to have a clear method and that will be individually based and depending on the conditions we’re confronted with,” McDonald was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald.
“We’ll be trying to make sure the batters are clear on their method,” said McDonald, adding, “You’re never going to get exactly the same as you’re going to get in a game, and that’s one of the real complexities around preparing for a cricket tour.” The coach, who took over from Justin Langer, said another reason for not playing a tour game in India was to keep players fresh at the back end of the month-long tour.
McDonald talks about the experience and practice games
McDonald also said that 11 members of the squad have already been to India before.
Australia hasn’t played a warmup match before the first test. He also said that there is no real connection between practice games and test matches.
“We haven’t played a tour game, for three years. It’s probably not something new to us, put it that way,” McDonald said.
“We value freshness at the back end of the tour. Something we’ve seen teams go there before and expend a lot of energy at the front end. We feel with the profile of this group, quite an experienced group, quite an experienced batting unit as well, who have been there before, I think 11 out of the squad has been there before.
“A significant chunk of the squad that’s been there before, so we feel that better places them leading in and then you never get guarantees over those practice game surface you get. Often, there’s no real connection between that practice game into the first Test match. We feel as though we can control the surfaces here,” he added.
McDonald finally concluded that they will train in Bengaluru by replicating the surfaces in the test series as he hopes it will pay dividends at the end of the tour.
“(We’ll) get a bit more control in Bangalore to replicate what we’re going to come up against and then we go into Nagpur fresh and hopefully it pays dividends at the back end,” McDonald concluded.
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