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Timid batting against spin has cruelled Australia in their recent Test tours in Asia. So it’s encouraging that Australia’s batsmen played assertively against the slow bowlers in the ongoing warm-up match in Sri Lanka.
This three-day fixture, against a Sri Lankan XI in Colombo, is Australia’s only practice match before the first Test starts in Kandy in six days.
Off spinner Shehan Jayasuriya, and left arm tweakers Chaturanga de Silva and Milinda Siriwardana conceded four runs per over as Australia took a big first-innings lead. Highlights showed the Australian batsmen using their feet, unfurling sweep shots and playing authoritative cross-bat strokes against that trio.
This is the kind of bright batsmanship Australia must display in the three Tests against Sri Lanka and also in the four Tests in India early next year. There is no excuse for it to be absent as Australia have a top seven which is well equipped to prosper against spin.
Steve Smith and David Warner are two of the finest non-Asian players of spin in world cricket, not to mention being superstars of the Test format. But there also is plenty of talent against the slow men among the rest of their batting order, the key is unleashing it.
Joe Burns was ruthless last summer in the way he went after Kiwi offie Mark Craig. First drop Usman Khawaja has gone from being apprehensive against spin to proactive and assured.
Adam Voges proved on debut he can conquer spin-friendly conditions, making 130 not out as West Indian leggie Devendra Bishoo ran amok, reducing Australia to 6-126 on a dusty deck in Dominica.
At six Mitchell Marsh has been in horrendous form with the blade in Tests for some time now.
Yet he impressed greatly with his batting against spin in his debut series in the UAE, almost two years ago, finishing with 164 runs at 41.
Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Peter Nevill has swift footwork against spin and rarely finds himself trapped on the crease by the slow men. The challenge now is for Australia’s top seven to back their ability against spin and not be submissive.
Summer after summer Australia’s Test batsmen make a point of batting in a positive fashion against touring spinners and, more often than not, this approach works. Yet when they arrive in Asia, most of them immediately change tack, switching to a defensive style against the tweakers.
Such a reaction is understandable if faced with a dustbowl pitch offering extravagant turn. But those kinds of decks are not the norm. Against Pakistan in 2014, neither of the pitches in the UAE offered much spin, and only two of the four decks used in the Tests in India in 2013 were raging turners.
Australia lost all six of those Tests and in the four which involved reasonable pitches Australia still batted as if they were minefields. The siege mentality of the Australian batsmen immediately handed the ascendancy to the opposition.
In the UAE, Australia scored at only 2.98 runs per over against Pakistan’s spinners, while the home team took Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe for 3.84rpo. In India Australia’s lack of intent with the blade was even worse. They allowed Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja to go at a miserly 2.28 runs per over, with India’s batsmen carting the Aussie spinners at almost double that run rate.
As a tweaker, there is nothing better than bowling to a batsman who plays you rooted to the crease with defence as their priority. It enables you to find your length and then stay there, working on your angles and variations until, inevitably, you undo him.
It is far more difficult to start your spell against a batsman who makes you second guess your length. They skip to the pitch of the ball, or reach down to sweep a length delivery then, when you react by dropping your length shorter, they are ready and waiting, unfurling a cut or pull for four.
Such batsmen dictate the game to the spinner, forcing the bowler out of their comfort zone.
Think of any fine player of spin and you’ll recognise this as their approach.
But, even if you have the skill set to execute this strategy, it takes courage and confidence to implement it. That is what Australia’s Test batsmen too often have lacked opposed to spinners in Asia. Maybe, just maybe, this series in Sri Lanka can be a turning point.