Published: Nov 06, 2014, 04:18 PM (IST)
Edited: Nov 06, 2014, 04:18 PM (IST)
Nov 6, 2014
After receiving a lot of flak owing to their humiliating defeat against Pakistan, Australia received some sort of consolidation from pacer Ryan Harris.
‘Watching the boys battling it out for two Tests against Pakistan in the UAE made for tough viewing, but not nearly as tough as it was for the guys on the ground facing those conditions and an opponent that grew in confidence and skill almost by the session’, wrote Ryan Harris in his column in cricket.com.au .
Explaining the current plight of Australia he wrote, “I don’t want to venture opinions from the other side of the world. I know how frustrating it can be for players when someone sitting back on their couch becomes an expert in what’s going on in the heat of battle.But I’ll say one thing – it looked like bloody hard work in conditions that would prove a challenge for any touring side.There’s no doubt that the end result was disappointing for a team that – although most of them hadn’t played a lot of cricket heading into the tour – went over there having prepared as well as possible and with an expectation to succeed.”
Harris further wrote,“When teams come to our conditions we’ve seen how they can struggle. It also took us a long time to win in a Test series in India and we finally did that in 2004 because of persistence and practice.I know we can expect to see more and more of these dry, slow pitches being rolled out around the world given our results of late, so it’s something we just have to get better at.”
Harris also praised Pakistan by writing,“At the same time, we simply have to acknowledge how well the Pakistanis played from pretty much the first half-hour of the series onwards.They batted patiently and then explosively, and even though they had a very inexperienced side their bowlers – especially spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah – bowled very, very well. Even their quicks did everything asked of them, and the ball that Imran Khan bowled to Pup (Michael Clarke) in the first innings in Abu Dhabi which came back in to hit middle stump was an unbelievable delivery. They just bowled very, very well and put the pressure on us from ball one.”
Ryan Harris further said that he is feeling positive and is hopeful of putting up a good show the Bupa Sheffield Shield game against New South Wales that starts at the ‘Gabba on November 16.
Harris who has been out of the national team following knee injuries was optimistic of his return to national team and ended his column by writing,“The subsequent one-dayers against India and England and then the ICC World Cup are in the back of my mind but I’ve not really thought about them too much as yet.And to be blunt, if I don’t improve on the way I’ve been bowling so far I won’t be playing too much Test cricket or even Shield cricket for that matter.In a perfect world, I’d get through the Shield game, bowl well, play all four Tests against India and then some of the one-dayers leading into the World Cup.”
Complete coverage of Pakistan vs Australia in UAE
