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Australia in India 2012-13
'Big role' for Australia's fast men in India - Siddle
February 7, 2013
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Australia's spearhead Peter Siddle believes pace bowling will be the key against India on the upcoming Test tour, despite the likelihood that the matches will be played on pitches offering significant spin. The first group of Australia's Test players flew out for India on Thursday while many of their team-mates remained at home to take on West Indies in the ongoing limited-overs series.
Siddle, Jackson Bird, Ed Cowan, Moises Henriques, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson and Steven Smith all departed in the advance party and will prepare for the first warm-up match in Chennai, which starts on Tuesday next week. There are two tour games at the Guru Nanak College Ground in Chennai before the first Test, which begins at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on February 22.
The make-up of Australia's first-choice Test side remains unclear following the retirement of Michael Hussey after the most recent Test series against Sri Lanka. Australia have the option of including Glenn Maxwell as a spinning allrounder alongside three fast men and Nathan Lyon, but they also have the choice of an extra specialist batsman, Khawaja, or a seaming allrounder, Moises Henriques, or a second specialist spinner, Xavier Doherty.
Whatever side is picked, there will be mountains of work for Siddle and his fast-bowling colleagues, Pattinson, Bird, Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc during the four-Test series. Despite the fact that nearly three quarters of the wickets that bowlers claimed in the recent India-England series fell to spinners - only 28 of 110 wickets went to fast bowlers - Siddle believes Australia will rely on the quality of their pace attack.
"The best way of attacking India is with whatever your best line-up is," Siddle told reporters at Melbourne airport on Thursday. "The way we've won Test matches for years now has been with our pace and I think that is going to play a big role. But Nathan [Lyon] is going to play a big role at the other end, and his game is going to flourish even more with the pressure we build at our end.
"Combined, we'll do well and definitely be able to take 20 wickets. We're strong, we've got a good set of quicks going over and we've got good back-up for Nathan over there with spin."
Siddle is one of only four members of Australia's 17-man squad who has played Test cricket in India, along with Johnson, Shane Watson and Michael Clarke. Siddle made his Test debut in Mohali in 2008 - it was there that he first established his reputation as a tireless workhorse - and he said the key to bowling in India was patience.
"Trying to bowl as straight and be as patient as we can be [is important]," Siddle said. "We were lucky enough that after the Sydney Test Glenn McGrath spent a bit of time in the rooms with us and we got a good chat with him, sat back and listened to how he went about his business over there.
"It's always been the case, even for a spinner - still patience. Indian wickets are hard work, the games go a little bit slower because the wickets are hard to score on. It is about patience, bowling to your fields and setting the right fields with your captain. Our side is disciplined enough now to go about it in that way. That won't change this series."
The second group of Australians - Maxwell, David Warner, Matthew Wade and the young spinner Ashton Agar - flies to India on Saturday and will be followed by the remainder of the group on Monday, the day after the final ODI against West Indies.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
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Brydon Coverdale
Assistant Editor Possibly the only person to win a headline-writing award for a title with the word "heifers" in it, Brydon decided agricultural journalism wasn't for him when he took up his position with ESPNcricinfo in Melbourne. His cricketing career peaked with an unbeaten 85 in the seconds for a small team in rural Victoria on a day when they could not scrounge up 11 players and Brydon, tragically, ran out of partners to help him reach his century. He is also a compulsive TV game-show contestant and has appeared on half a dozen shows in Australia.
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He is right to an extent. The key will be the type of fields the captain sets. The reason why Australia won in 04 was because they set ring fields with lots of midwickets, short covers and fieldsman in front of the wicket. They didn't have fieldsman on the fence but lots of fielders around the circle. With McGrath, Gillespie and Kasper bowling stump to stump and having such great control, Australia's quicks got a lot of wickets from LBWs and bowls. I would say the problem Australia had in 08 and 10 besides not having those greats was that Ponting's fields were a touch more defensive and there was no pressure built because there were fieldsmen on the boundary giving away singles. If Clarke has a lot of attacking fieldsmen in front of the wicket and the quicks show good control and patience, they are a good chance.
I can't see that Australia has a choice really. Pace is our strength and that's what we should go with. .. wouldn't it be great if Lyon stepped it up a bit and becomes a genuine threat as a spinner. People forget how many catches went down off him this summer. .. I think Bird could be a trump card in India. He has the ability to hold his line for long periods which forces the batsmen to do something if they want to score. They can't just sit back and wait for the bad ball because you rarely get one off him... Starc has to play as well. That's a no-brainer imo. .. that only leaves one more spot so it has to Siddle or Pattinson. I'd go with Sids. He's an inspiration just about everytime he bowls. ..
Aussies need 5 bowlers in the XI. My pick will be Siddle, Starc and Bird as the pacers(if Pattiinson is 110% fit then he can replace Bird), Lyon and Doherty as spinners(Starc has to be the all rounder and bat well in Chennai). The speicalist batsmen will be: Warner, Watson,Hughes, Clarke, Khwaja and Wade(although I would have preferred Haddin). At Hyderabad and Mohali, Moises Henriques should replace Doherty in the XI.
Starc is the main threat for India, Pattinson if remains fit can trouble India, and Siddle is 100 percent giver.So seems to me a decent bowling attack. But the problem for Australia would be their batting.One poor session against spin can take the match away from them. From the Steve Waugh era, all India-Aus matches are being played with high intensity and competetive sprit I am keeping my fingers crossed.Hoping for an even and exciting contest.
Saying that Australia will attack India with pace is making a virtue out of a necessity. That's their strength and they will likely play to it. Whether it's a formula that will win them the series is another matter.
The real question for Australia is whether their batsmen will make enough runs to give the bowlers a shot. India's a tough place for batsmen, especially those brought up on hard, fast wickets. However, Aus brings in momentum from their summer series, so they'll feel they can do well and confidence is half the battle.
I'm looking forward to a fascinating series.
Australia's only recent success in India, 04, was down to the brilliance of Gillespie, Kasper and Mcgrath, who even on featherbeds wore down a strong batting line up. Siddle is 100% right that you should stick to your strengths, unfortunately spin isn't Australia's and instead of trying to force miracles from Maxwell n co they should indeed back their seamers and hope for the best from their batsman in order to have a shot in India. It is the same way SA have been successful in India, its not every team that has Englands luxury of being able to beat India at their own game.
I hope india draw the series..if india loses this series then there is no big surprise..whenever a aus series starts it wil be ind batting vs aus bowling but this time aus bowling vs ind ????
Posted by thebatsmansHoldingthebowlersWilley on (February 8, 2013, 11:59 GMT)Should be a great series. Australia's decent pace attack against India's frail batting, and India's spinners against Australia's inexperienced top order. I think a lot hinges on Michael Clarke's form - i can't see anyone else in the top order making big hundreds.
Posted by getsetgopk on (February 8, 2013, 7:18 GMT)Its not the fact that India lost 0-8 over the past few months that annoys me but rather the lack of intent and insatiable hunger to succeed at the pinacle form of the game. This lack of will and intent is a very well known secret and most India fans if not all know this. I heard some time back that a former Indian selector talked about removing Dhoni as test captain after the 04 Eng tour but then came the decree from BCCI's chief himself that "Dhoni is is good for business" and hence those voices were squashed aside. Clearly Dhoni is the best captain Ind had in the ODI format but he should not be in the test team and that much is crystal clear. Dhoni himself sort of vaguely admitted it when he said 'I wont run away from responsibility of leading the test team'. Which if you ask me he's yelling to find someone else who can take charge and try out something different. He maybe committed to the cause but clearly lacks the required skill set.
Posted by chepujaradon25 on (February 8, 2013, 7:03 GMT)as indian fan, even i know this series will be in favor of australia 2-0 atleast. Starc will show Sehwag and gambhir his place. the only hope for india is if cheteshwar pujara and virat kohli maintain consistency and see off the aussie quicks because their spinners will be quite easy to handle. the real challenge will be whether australian batsmen can handle spin. they are relatively inexperienced so that will be the battle to watch.