Sports

Australia focused on playing traditional shots under Smith

Ravichandran Ashwin’s stupendous record in Tests at the Holkar Stadium could make the Australian batsman rethink his strategy of playing the high-risk sweep shot that cost the visitors the first two matches. Ashwin has taken 18 wickets in two Tests at this ground at an impressive average of 12.5 runs per wicket. A week after taking a knee in their second innings in Delhi, Australia arrived ahead of schedule for their net session.

The team faced criticism for their tactics against the Indian spinners at the Feroz Shah Kotla, where half the batsmen were out trying to sweep against the slow and low ball. Having squandered a chance to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy again, Australia were keen to learn from their mistakes in their over three-hour training session. Instead of sweeping the ball, Steve Smith and his team primarily attempted front foot defense against the spinners in addition to playing forward shots.

Smith and Usman Khawaja were the first to enter the nets and batted for over an hour against Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhneman. Smith, one of Australia’s best batsmen against spin, has been disappointing so far and will be looking to improve upon that in the match starting on Wednesday. Lyon troubled both Khawaja and Smith while both looked determined to strengthen their defence.

Most of the big shots were played on the inexperienced Kuhneman. An hour of poor batting at the Kotla cost Australia a defeat despite knowing full well that the sweep was a risky and less effective scoring option on Indian pitches. He will have to rely more heavily on his defense and play out of the crease regularly to spoil the rhythm of Ashwin and his teammates. Smith and Khawaja returned to the nets after all the batsmen had practiced. Apart from Khawaja, the other batsman who practiced the sweep was Alex Carey, who has been dismissed four times while playing the same shot.

Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head and Peter Handscomb face off-spinner Todd Murphy and leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson who have rejoined the team following the birth of their child. Handscomb has looked most comfortable against the spinners on the tour so far. Head, who was the most attacking batsman among the Australian batsmen in Delhi, played slog sweeps against Swepson.

Left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc, who was ruled out of the first two Tests with a finger injury, will replace regular skipper Pat Cummins in the playing XI for the third Test, who is in Australia with his ailing mother. Starc said he is not 100 per cent fit yet but bowled to Cameron Green for about an hour and got good pace.

Lance Morris bowled alongside him and Green was caught off guard on several occasions with his pace and movement. Green, who returned to bowl later in the season, is preparing to play his first Test of the series after missing the first two Tests due to a finger injury. With Cummins and David Warner out, Green and Starc are natural choices to replace them.

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