Australia skipper Michael Clarke has shown faith in his pace bowlers by opting to go with a lone spinner, Nathon Lyon, for the first Test against India at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here today. India, on the other hand, is expected to play with several spinners
Clarke, in a bid to counter the Indian spin attack, has advised his batsmen not to fear going over the top. “Playing spin bowling is no different to playing fast bowling. You need to have the courage to stick to that plan whether you make zero or 100. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. We are going to try our best. That is for sure,” Clarke said.
Michael Clarke
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On not playing a second specialist spinner, he said, “I think we’ve got a really good attack. We’ve got three specialist fast bowlers and we’ve got an all-rounder in Moises (Henriques). Then we’ve got our frontline spinner in Nathan Lyon and a couple of part-timers in David Warner and myself.
“Personally I think we have covered all bases. I think India’s team will be a lot different to ours, but I think we have gone with our strengths and we’re hoping that when the wicket does deteriorate here, not only will it spin more, it will also go up and down more. We think reverse swing will play a part as well.”
James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle are the three pacers in Australia’s playing XII.
On announcing the first XII 48 hours prior to the start of the Test, he said, “We felt that we have a big squad — it was really important to let the boys know what the squad would be as soon as possible.
“I think announcing the team as early as we did shows a lot of faith and confidence in the players and we don’t think the wicket can change too much.”u00a0
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