Australia will go into their final practice match before the first Test
against India with three spinners in their XI. Their captain Michael Clarke
and opener David Warner will sit out of the game, as they continue
their rehabilitation from injuries in order to be fit for the Chennai
Test from February 22.
Included in the XI for the three-day game against India A is Ashton
Agar, the 19-year old left-arm spinner who has been asked to stay on
tour instead of returning home as planned. Agar will bowl alongside
Australia's frontline spinner Nathan Lyon and Xavier Doherty at the ICL
Guru Nanak College ground in Chennai, with Peter Siddle and Mitchell
Starc being the two quick bowlers.
In his first media interaction after arriving in India, Clarke reeled
off his team's XI, and four of the top six - Ed Cowan, Usman Khawaja,
Moses Henriques and Matthew Wade - had played in the first practice
match. Shane Watson and Phillip Hughes are the other two lining up
against the India A bowlers.
Australia were treating their first practice match - a two-day game
against the Board President's XI - as a "victory", Clarke said. After
being dismissed for 241, the Australians skittled the opposition for
230. "To bowl them out for less than what we had scored in conditions
they are really accustomed to was a good sign for us."
Playing three spinners with Siddle and Starc in the three-day match,
Clarke said, would give him a chance to "assess where our players are
at, have a look at the guys in preparation for the Test team. We are
giving our spinners the best chance by playing [all] three."
Australia's practice session at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the venue
for the first Test, had to be cancelled due to overnight rain, but
Clarke turned up to test his hamstring. The conditions at the practice
match venue, he said, were different to those at the stadium. "From what
I was looking at the conditions, spin bowling is going to play a really
big part throughout this first Test match." India picked four spinners,
including Ravindra Jadeja, for the first two Tests and Clarke said he
believed, "a lot of those guys if not all of them" could end up playing
in Chennai.
In a raw Australian batting line-up, Clarke is the best and most
experienced batsman against spin. However, he remembered what his 2010
tour, when he scored 35 runs in four innings, had been like. "I think
reputation is irrelevant to be honest, especially my reputation. I start
on zero like everybody else. My last tour to India wasn't anywhere near
as successful as I would have liked. I really enjoy the challenge of
facing spin bowling but it still gets me out, like every player."
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