Australia prepared for ‘worst’ while training in UAE for India tour: Sridharan Sriram

Former Indian cricketer Sridharan Sriram, who is currently in the Australian camp involved as an assistant coach is all praise for the visiting side as well as their spinner Steve O’Keefe, who rattled India in the first Test at Pune last week. Sriram said Australia prepared for the ‘worst’ during their training camp in UAE which played a big role in their first Test victory. O’Keefe claimed 12 wickets in the first Test to hand Australia their first win by 333 runs, their first in India since October 2004. Sriram, who has been involved with the Australian cricketers for quite some time, says they know what to accept and what to reject, which he termed ‘bullshit’. Australia currently lead the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2016-17. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs Australia, 1st Test at Pune

“If I talk sense they listen to me if I talk bullshit they don’t,” Sriram was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. “They’ve really been open. That’s the best thing about this Australian team. They’ve been open to listen first and then obviously I made sense a little bit and they started listening and they started trying out things in the nets and saw that it worked for them and I think that’s how it has gone,” said Sriram, who also revealed a great deal about how the Australians prepared for the India tour consisting four Tests, during their preparatory camp in the UAE.

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Sriram said Australian cricketers prepared for the ‘worst’ while training in UAE. They prepared rank turners which stayed low. “You prepare for the worst. Then if you get the best, you go for it. But I think the preparation in Dubai was excellent. We prepared different tracks. We made a rough. We made rank turners. We made slow and low pitches. So I think it was a great preparation in terms of trying different surfaces and being prepared for whatever you get.”

The turning point of the first Test was an impromptu session during lunch on the second day, when O’Keefe did not join his teammates for lunch and stayed on the field looking a little disturbed. Not knowing whether it was the best time to talk or not, Sriram still went ahead to find out. Sriram and O’Keefe went ahead for a short training session, with the bowler skipping his lunch.

O’Keefe told Sriram, “I think I need to have a bowl with you in the centre”.

Sriram added, “He told me he was a bit nervous to start off and he was in his comfort zone and trying to bowl as he would do in Australia. But I said, ‘SOK, what do you think you need on this wicket?’ And he said, ‘I need to go a little bit rounder and quicker.’ And I just said to him ‘go for it mate’. “ ALSO READ – India vs Australia: Understanding the magnitude of Steven Smith and co.’s win at Pune

Sriram continued, “I know what it is to fail as a spinner as well. So I think that’s really more important than to really know what you did to succeed. Until the age of 19, I went through the grind of domestic cricket as a spinner. So I pretty much know what it feels like to bowl spin in India and do well and not do well.”

“I’ve been following him quite a bit in that I have watched even some games live, I’ve watched the Sheffield Shield games,” Sriram said while talking about India’s wrecker-in-chief at Pune. “He wanted it badly. He knew that he was the sort of subcontinent expert that the Australians were looking for and he knew that he had to play over here,” he added.

The former cricketer said there cannot be one specific plans for the bowlers while playing in India. “India is such a big country, there’s no one-stop solution. If you say ‘this will work’, it is not going to work. So you have just got to adapt on the go. You have got to see what works for you on that day. And so I think that’s where Stephen O’Keefe really scored because he was well prepared. He was prepared to experiment; he was prepared to sort of try different things in the nets. Which goes back to our time in Chennai in 2015. So I think he knew that he had to come with an open mind for every day of a Test Match. What works on day one may not work on day three. He knows that. I think that’s his biggest strength.”

“You bowl, you bowl well, you bowl to your plan, you bowl to bowl the right length and bowl to the right speed. And the wickets take care of itself. It’s not that I’m going to say I’m going to take a wicket every ball. That doesn’t happen. All you can do is set up a batsman and adapt on the go. What he’s doing and what can I do, throw different things at him, be adaptable, be open, but the wickets will take care of themselves,” he added.