To survive India’s spin attack watch the ball, trust yourself - and watch the ball some more

STEVE Smith’s Australian team face a daunting prospect — batting in India on turning pitches against top-class spinners - Ian Chappell has some tips.

STEVE Smith’s Australian team face a daunting prospect — batting in India on turning pitches against top-class spinners knowing that decent totals are mandatory in order to have any chance of defeating a buoyant home side.

On Australia’s victorious tour of India in 1969-70 I learned important lessons on how to play spin bowling. Those lessons endured for the rest of my career and eradicated any possible concerns when I encountered good spinners on a helpful pitch.

The crucial thing was to find a survival method for the first fifteen minutes of your innings. This wasn’t easy as the ball spun and fizzed, with numerous safe hands close by eager to bring your torture session to a premature end.

It’s easy for the mind to become muddled when your next run appears to be as distant as the finishing line of a marathon. Then you discover there’s a little extra time to defend on the back-foot in India because the ball slows a fraction after pitching.

However after unearthing this gem, you have to complement it by watching the ball ever more closely.

Australia's captain Steve Smith plays a shot during the first day of three-day practice cricket match between India 'A' and Australia at The Brabourne Cricket Stadium in Mumbai.

Once these lessons are absorbed, the art of survival early on becomes a little easier. Then you discover that not only is there an extra fraction of a second to defend your wicket but actually there’s enough time to work the ball into a gap for a much needed single.

Nevertheless that acquired knowledge is useless unless you constantly remind yourself to watch the ball with fastidious care.

These lessons were invaluable but so also were some I learned in Australia as a youngster.

The two most important pieces of advice on playing spin bowling I received from my coach Lynn Fuller were; “If you leave the crease don’t think about the wicket-keeper and if you get stumped, make it by three yards not three inches.”

The first was pretty obvious; if the keeper is on your mind then you are thinking about missing the ball.

The second was crucial; if you come a good three paces out of the crease that really changes the bowler’s length to your advantage. As I discovered in India [where men around the bat are a constant and present danger] coming a long way out of the crease quickly reduces the effectiveness of the close fielders.

For the modern batsman there’s an added advantage in leaving the crease as it reduces the chance of being adjudged lbw via a DRS referral.

Being stumped by the width of the crease line is a crime amply punished by dismissal. Such tentativeness only serves to improve the bowler’s length and hence his chances of acquiring another ambush.

Despite those helpful tidbits, Fuller’s best advice wasn’t technical; “Ian, it doesn’t matter how good I am as a coach,” he said. “I can’t help you out in the middle, so the quicker you learn this game for yourself, the better off you’ll be.”

Wise words and damned useful for an anxious teenager facing someone as wily as Richie Benaud in a cut-throat Sheffield Shield contest. Benaud gave me the once over, starting on an off-stump line, moving it to middle and then finally to leg-stump to see what chinks he could find in the armoury.

This test proved to be great preparation for the grilling I later received from the equally cagey Erapalli Prasanna on spin friendly pitches in India.

Once I’d absorbed the tutorial for playing in India, facing Prasanna and company became a demanding challenge to be savoured, rather than a torturous and short journey to an inevitably predictable fate.

Smith’s touring team has spent hours practicing on specially concocted pitches in Dubai to prepare them for the twin threat of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadega in India. If they learn nothing more than to watch the ball extremely closely and come to the realisation that there’s a fraction of a second longer to play off the back-foot, then it’ll be time well spent in Dubai.

However, they now face the final challenge; putting into practice out in the middle what they’ve learned in the relative comfort of the nets. When a batsman is out in the middle he’s totally reliant on his and only his instincts and initiative.

Originally published as To survive India’s spin attack watch the ball, trust yourself - and watch the ball some more