Former Test captain Mark Taylor believes Australia’s failings against spin bowling boils down to a mental barrier rather than a technical issue.
Taylor said Australia’s 221-run loss to Pakistan in the first Test in Dubai was not as bad as it looked and not an indication Michael Clarke’s team had descended back to the dismal form of last year’s tour of India.
Celebrating a belated 50th birthday at the launch of NSW’s Sheffield Shield season, Taylor said the starting point for Australia’s problems in Dubai was losing a critical toss and not knowing how to handle it.
The Australian board member also said the batsmen could use some more help from the bowling attack, who let Pakistan post a first innings total of 454 to set the game up.
England are likely to try to take advantage of Australia’s weakness and prepare slow wickets for next year’s Ashes, but Taylor stressed there’s no need to panic.
“One of the mental barriers you’ve got to get over is what score you’re trying to achieve,” Taylor said.
“If you walked out and there are 450 runs on the board … you’re starting a long way behind.
“If you bowl a side out in those conditions for 180, you walk out there thinking, `wow, if we can make 350, we’ll only have to bat once.
“That’s the different mindset.
“I think (the criticism) has been a bit of a quantum jump straight back to the so called bad old days.
“What happened in Dubai from what I could see is we … lost a very important toss.”
Former Test batsman Dean Jones has led calls for the Australian set-up to review the way they prepare for spinning conditions.
Other suggestions have been to import foreign soil to Australian training grounds to better replicate spinning conditions found in the sub-continent.
However, Taylor believes Australia have a solid sprinkling of batsmen who are proficient at facing spin.
“Look, we’ve never been the greatest players of spin, but we’re not that bad either,” he said.
“Michael Clarke, Steven Smith and David Warner is a much better player of spin these days.
“It’s not as if we can’t play against it.”
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