Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has revealed that the Australian Test team is leaving no stone unturned while preparing for the threat posed by Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja with their slide spin. The Australian coach before leaving the country told The Sydney Morning Herald about the strategic challenges that the tour of India posed.
Australia is set to play the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the months of February and March, where they will be locking horns with Rohit Sharma-led Team India in a 4-match Test series. With India expected to prepare turning tracks, it will be a real challenge for the Pat Cummins side which has been in sensational form across the world against the teams that they have faced.
As per the quotes in India Today, Andre McDonald said, “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. 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.”
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He further added, “Diva [Michael Di Venuto] does a fantastic job in preparing. 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.”
Indian spinners were sensational against England in their last tour of India in 2021. After winning the first Test match at Chennai, England suffered losses in the remaining 3 Tests where spinners played a huge part.
Talking about the Indian spinners, Andre McDonald said, “We’ll be trying to make sure the batters are clear on their method. 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.”
Australia is not playing any tour matches ahead of the series, which has been criticized by the media. The coach said that they prefer their players to be fresh at the back end and that is why a call has been made by the management.
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Elaborating the same, Andrew McDonald said, “We value freshness at the back end of the tour. 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.”
