The sweep shot is not the only way to survive against spinners on Indian pitches and instead batsmen need good footwork to do well against spinners, feels former Australia captain Ian Chappell. Australia’s pre-planned strategy of playing sweep shots against the Indian spinners failed miserably as the hosts won the opening two Tests to ensure they retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 2-0 lead. Two matches of the four-Test series are yet to be played.
Chappell wrote in his column for ‘ESPNcricinfo’, “Playing sweep shots regularly is not the answer to playing good spin bowling and if anyone is saying that, they are not speaking their mind.” “Some players can be very good at playing the sweep shot and should use that shot but for most players there are better ways. Any good spinner who gets bounce off the ball is likely to expose the danger of playing the sweep shot consistently. Decided not to play practice match.
Chappell wrote, “You can’t learn to play good spin bowling on specially prepared pitches in Australia just before the important tour of India.” You have to learn to go on the backfoot from the side – you have to do that at a young age. Chappell also questioned Australia’s team selection for the first two Tests.
“There was absolutely no consistency in Australia’s selection on this tour and it was irrational at times,” he said. Australia would be a very good team at many venues in the world of cricket but the worries about the India tour should have started much earlier. Citing the example of Indian captain and opener Rohit Sharma, Chappell feels it is important to survive the first 10 minutes with a bit of luck on spin-friendly Indian pitches.
Chappell said, “A successful player has to figure out early on how to save the first 10 minutes on a spin-friendly Indian pitch and hope that luck favors him.” The former Australian captain wrote, “If He plays intelligently as Rohit Sharma did during the series so it is not impossible to bat on Indian pitches. The 79-year-old recalled his way of tackling spin in India.
He said, “My perception of playing good spin bowling in India is traditional, based on experiences of more than five decades. Can those principles still work? If they are followed, and sensibly shown, they can.” Chappell said, “I was taught that if you get stumped, it is not three inches but three yards. It was brilliant advice followed by don’t look at the wicketkeeper because if you do you are thinking of missing the ball.
He said, “Based on these suggestions and my training, I relied on my defense in India. If you don’t, as the current Australian team has shown, you can easily panic and play bad shots.
