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Alex Doolan looking forward to first Indian tour

Doolan said he doesn’t think there will be a lot of troubles for him on the first tour of India.

Alex Doolan is a part of Australia's National Performance Squad to tour India © Getty Images
Alex Doolan is a part of Australia’s National Performance Squad to tour India © Getty Images

Jul 30, 2014

Australia middle-order batsman Alex Doolan said on Thursday that he is ready for his maiden tour of India. Australia’s National Performance Squad (NPS) will be touring India for two four-day matches to be played in Bangalore.

“The idea is to get a little bit of experience in Indian conditions,” Doolan was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia’s (CA) official website. “I haven’t been to India before and it’s very different to anything we face here in Australia. I’ll get a bit of experience and learn how to play on those sorts of wickets.”

Doolan said he doesn’t think there will be a lot of troubles for him on the first tour of India, where the tracks are generally spin-friendly.

“I don’t think it’s affected me at all, to be perfectly honest. Really, the only big turning wickets you get are in the subcontinent, so it’s only one or two series here and there that there’s a real challenge (on turning pitches). I speak to other people that have been there and done that about the game plans that they came up with and what worked for them and try to adapt it to your game.

“Other than actually getting over there and physically learning how to play on them yourself, it’s to take as much knowledge as you can from other people.”

The report on the website added that the upcoming tour is one of the methods by the board to avoid the defeats such as 4-0 which Australia faced in 2013. Doolan said that the appointment of Muttiah Muralitharan will work in advantage of the batsmen.

“(Murali’s appointment) is going to work out beautifully for the batsmen. I know my time with Murali has been excellent for me as a batsman on how he sees batters playing against him, as well as someone like Saeed Ajmal and ways to attack him and the ways to pick his different deliveries.”

“I probably won’t watch a lot of footage [of Ajmal], because I’ve seen a lot of him on television,” the 27-year-old admitted as Australia’s next Test assignment will be against Pakistan. I’ll speak to other people and find out what they look for to pick his different balls.

“I’ll speak to someone like Murali who has got a similar range of balls and how he bowls them and what I should be looking for to pick Ajmal.”

Australia’s National Performance Squad: Sean Abbott, Tom Andrews, Cameron Bancroft, William Bosisto, Alex Doolan, Jake Doran, Alex Gregory, Alexander Keath, Simon Mackin, James Muirhead, Sam Rainbird, Matt Short, Jordan Silk, Mark Steketee, Sam Whiteman.

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