Australia’s batsmen are counting on video footage, specialised net sessions and careful planning to ensure they are not left looking clueless against Pakistan’s spinners again.
Veteran leg-spinner Shahid Afridi and inexperienced off-spinner Saeed Ajmal tore through the Australian batting line-up in their series-opening one-day match on Wednesday night.
Both spinners claimed career-best figures, Afridi taking 6-38 and Ajmal 2-19, as Australia were bowled out for a paltry 168, a total Pakistan comfortably chased down.
Both slow bowlers benefited from the batsmen’s struggles to pick their deliveries, Afridi claiming several wickets with straight balls or wrong’uns and Ajmal snaring acting captain Michael Clarke with a superb doosra.
The Australians’ struggles against spinners in one-day cricket has become a disturbing trend, with South Africa’s tweakers having success against them both in their home and away series.
Australian coach Tim Nielsen admitted the doosra in particular caused trouble.
“We don’t have exposure in domestic cricket in Australia to that style of bowling,” Nielsen said on Thursday.
“… It is difficult when the first time you get it is when you step up to international level.
“So we had a good chat about it last night and all we can do is keep doing what we’ve been doing, work at it in training and try to face more of it.
“My shoulder will probably get worn out throwing off-spinners and doosras (in the nets).”
Pakistan captain Younis Khan and coach Intikhab Alam both said they had targeted that aspect as Australia’s weakness.
“Before picking the team I was talking to my coach and the Aussies always have trouble against off-spinners,” Khan said.
“The last couple of days I’ve been full of support for (Ajmal) and I was there for him and talking about ‘you must take wickets for us’.
“Then suddenly he takes Clarke’s wicket and that was really crucial at that time.”
While Nielsen and Clarke admitted Australia were caught out in game one, they were confident they would be ready for game two in Dubai on Friday.
“Each individual has to come up with their own plan about how they’re going to combat (the spinners), some guys will sweep, others will try to use their feet,” Nielsen said.
He added the Pakistan side and Afridi in particular were players that thrived on momentum and Australia needed to get on top of them early.
Clarke said plenty of video homework was being done, with the batsmen immediately working on solving the spin puzzle straight after Wednesday night’s match.
“We need to find a way to be successful against both spinners, the leg-spinner and the off-spinner,” Clarke said.
“We’ll have a look at a lot of footage, each batsman will have an individual plan and I think a game under our belt and seeing how both spinners go about their work will hold us in good stead.”
He said the other key element was patience.
“We’re just going to have to work hard and not throw our wickets away, just put a little bit more value on our wickets when the spinners are on,” he said.
“… It’s just discipline, it’s self-belief knowing we are good players of spin bowling which we’ve shown in the past in all conditions, we just have to show that discipline on Friday.”
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