Cricket coach John Buchanan feels Australia’s pace attack and not spinners will be the key to their success in India.
Buchanan, who coached Australia to a historic win on the 2004 tour of India, says the outcome of the four-match Test series beginning in Chennai Friday will depend a lot on how the speedsters bowl with the old ball besides stifling the Indian batsmen.
Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Jackson Bird form Australia’s potent pace department.
“I do think it’s a good pace attack; it depends how it adapts to the conditions it’s about to face,” Buchanan, now New Zealand’s director of cricket, told the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
Comparing the present conditions from the 2004 tour in November, Buchanan said: “They’re going into India now in February/March. That makes a difference as well because some of the wickets still provide a little bit of bounce and pace at the start of the summer, whereas potentially by this time of their season wickets have been subjected to plenty of heat and plenty of wear and possibly the ability for pace bowlers to extract good pace and bounce are limited.
“It really means that the pace bowlers have really got to look at their strategies with an old bowl and what they can do with that.”
The 59-year-old Australian also emphasised on not fielding a spin loaded line-up.
“You don’t take spinners just for the sake of taking a spinner. Indians are so used to playing spin bowling, there is no guarantee they are going to make an impact in a series,” he said.
Nathan Lyon and Xavier Doherty are the frontline spinners in the squad.
Asked what worked from them in 2004, Buchannan said: “Basically, we designed a three-step strategy. One was how we were going to attack each batsman - that was always Plan A. Plan B was how do we reduce the boundaries, how do we stop them scoring? And Plan C, which we never really wanted to get to, was when they’re actually taking us apart.
“The key was just sticking with it. Adam Gilchrist was captain that tour and he certainly made sure that all bowlers just stuck to a plan, whether it was Plan A, or Plan B. Very rarely did we get to Plan C because it seemed like we were able to make impact, or gradually contain them and then make impact.
“With the fast bowlers, if we could do that, it meant Warnie (Shane Warne) could basically bowl when and how we wanted him to.”
Kleinveldt to play in final Test
Durban: Rory Kleinveldt will replace fellow fast bowler Morne Morkel in the South African team for the third and final Test against Pakistan starting at Centurion on Friday.
Selection convener Andrew Hudson confirmed yesterday that Morkel would not play because of a hamstring injury which twice forced him off the field during the second Test which ended in Cape Town on Sunday.
It will be Kleinveldt’s fourth Test cap.
He made his debut when South Africa opted for an all-pace attack in the first Test against Australia in Brisbane last November and made two subsequent appearances when Vernon Philander was unfit.
Dolphins fast bowler Kyle Abbott, the leading wicket-taker in South Africa’s domestic four-day competition which ended recently, has been added to the squad as cover.
South Africa, who won both the first two Tests, will go into the final match knowing they are guaranteed a $450,000 bonus for being on top of the International Cricket Council rankings at the April 1 cut-off date.
South African Test squad: Graeme Smith (capt), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Rory Kleinveldt, Jacques Rudolph, Kyle Abbott.
Injured Jayawardene out of B’desh series
Colombo: Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was yesterday ruled out of the forthcoming home series against Bangladesh because of a finger injury, the cricket board said.
Jayawardene, 35, who is Sri Lanka’s highest run-getter in Tests, dislocated a finger in his left hand while fielding during a domestic first-class match in Colombo on Sunday.
Scans of the injury have been sent to Australia for further analysis, Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement, adding that the batsman could be out of action for four to six weeks.
Bangladesh are due to play two Tests, three one-dayers and one Twenty20 international during their month-long tour of Sri Lanka in March.
Jayawardene, who resigned as captain after the recent Australian tour, has scored 10,806 runs in 138 Tests at an average of 49.56 with 31 centuries.
He also has 10,892 one-day runs from 391 matches with 15 hundreds, and 1,293 runs in 46 Twenty20 internationals.
All-rounder Angelo Mathews replaced Jayawardene as Test and one-day captain, while Dinesh Chandimal will lead in Twenty20 matches.