We adapted too slowly - O'Keefe

Everything Steve O'Keefe knew was wrong.

The size of Australia's task in re-educating for future Asian assignments has been outlined by the fact that O'Keefe found much of his own spin bowling education down under was more or less irrelevant when taking on Pakistan's batsmen in the UAE.

This point was reinforced to O'Keefe by watching the success of his fellow left-arm spinner Zulfiqur Babar, who often employed methods virtually the opposite to those spin bowlers and batsmen learn in Australia. Side-spin variations aided Babar, while liberal use of the sweep confounded Nathan Lyon and O'Keefe, who admitted Australian batsmen rarely attacked him in that way.

"In 170 overs in the field you get a lot of time for reflection," O'Keefe said of his difficult debut in Dubai, where he claimed four expensive wickets before being dropped for the second match in Abu Dhabi. "I think over there you've really got to learn to adapt to the way they bowl. Some of the things you can learn at home don't necessarily translate into the way they perform over there.

"You can't really kick the dirt with that, you've got to adapt to those conditions, and unfortunately we did that too slowly I think. Personally I know if I had that time again there's a few things I'd change with my bowling. For me the biggest thing is being able to adapt to the conditions and the players you're playing against - that'll change every time you play cricket."

O'Keefe was particularly fascinated by the skills of Babar, a bowler the Australians had scouted via video footage but still found difficult to decipher. "He does things that we're traditionally taught not to," O'Keefe said. "He doesn't finish off with his front bowling arm past his hip, he does it to the other side and he bowls a lot of square spin.

"In Australia we're taught to try to get over the top of the ball and bounce it, however that was more effective sliding it on, and we saw how many guys that we had getting out lbw or bowled missing balls that were going straight and not spinning with the odd one turning.

"So that's about adjusting to the conditions and you can really learn a lot from someone like him who's played a lot of first-class cricket. As a bowler I'm going to take a lot out of that and I'm sure the batters who didn't have as much success as they'd have liked will also learn from it."

Equally, O'Keefe learned from the batting of Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Ahmed Shehzad and Sarfraz Ahmed, all of whom found methods capable of taking them past three figures at least once. "One thing I took out of it is they swept so well," O'Keefe said. "They'd sweep two or three times an over and the ball you bowl in the same position on a good length they can run down the wicket and hit you over your head, block and sweep.

"Very rarely did they miss a sweep shot, and in Australian conditions you very rarely come up against guys who sweep at all. So that took some adjusting to, we could have adjusted a bit quicker I think, myself and Nathan, but they took the game to us.

"I know Nathan Lyon has learned a lot and as a young bloke who's done so well for Australia, hopefully they stick with him and keep giving him that confidence because I know he takes a lot out of that. And even myself I know I've learned so much from being over there in two game,s and I think that was the take home message - when you're not doing well not to kick the can but look at ways to improve."

Notably, O'Keefe said the Australian team hierarchy maintained a sense of composure throughout, even though they had expected to win the series - even more so once Saeed Ajmal was suspended. "One of the great things about being around that change room was Darren Lehmann remained on an even keel the whole time," he said. "That's not to say the boys weren't hurting of course we were, you don't like to lose any game of cricket ... but we were learning.

"At the end of each day's play we'd have a summary, at the end of a Test we'd summarise, it's about a bigger picture and there certainly weren't blokes going off, we we all in together. One thing you can't fault is the energy and intent that the guys had, execution wasn't there.

"The way the guys I don't think they cold have done much more. The way we went over there and trained I think was the right way, but they're very good in their own conditions... We have to improve, how we go about that will be up to the way the set-up chooses it, whether into those sorts of matches on the subcontinent you prepare more, but now it's a completely different game, we come back to Australia in conditions we know and that's our complete focus."

Home conditions and Indian opposition now mean a recall for O'Keefe as second spinner may be unlikely this summer, but at least he knows what to be looking for next time he faces subcontinental batsmen.