Sridharan Sriram to coach Australia's spinners in India

Sridharan Sriram, the former India left-arm spinning allrounder, will mentor Australia's legion of slow bowlers on their upcoming Test tour of India. Sriram has worked with Australia's spinners on previous occasions, including on last year's tour of Sri Lanka and in the World Twenty20 in India earlier in 2016, and he was also engaged for the tour of Bangladesh that was ultimately postponed.

Sriram will travel with the squad to Dubai on January 29 for their training camp at the ICC Academy, and will then work with the side through the four-Test tour that follows. Australia have picked four specialist spinners for the series - Nathan Lyon, Steve O'Keefe, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson - as well as spinning allrounder Glenn Maxwell.

"Sri has worked with us on a number of occasions now all across our pathway system and he is currently in Dubai with our Under-16 team providing his expertise on sub-continental conditions," Pat Howard, Cricket Australia's executive general manager of team performance, said.

"He knows our players very well and has a wealth of knowledge on the conditions that our players will face in India."

Sriram's presence on the India tour has been preferred to that of spin consultant John Davison, who has a good working relationship with Lyon but travels only sporadically with the team.

Australia have also called on England left-armer Monty Panesar to help them prepare for the India series. Panesar has been playing club cricket in Sydney this summer and is set to travel to the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane this week to offer spin advice.