With flat pitches on offer nowadays in the limited-overs game, former Australia skipper Michael Clarke feels Steve Smith & Co. will not have to worry much during the upcoming five-match One-Day International series in India.
Australia’s inability to adapt well on turning tracks once again got exposed during their recently-concluded Test series in Bangladesh where they lost a Test for the first time in 17 years.
The performance in Bangladesh gave rise to apprehensions that the team from Down Under would struggle to do well in India where they can find similar pitches. However, Clarke feels different conditions in Tests and limited-overs games would make it easy for the visitors to do well in the upcoming series.
“Conditions in Test matches and ODIs are a lot different. You get flat pitches to bat on in ODIs and T20s. 95 per cent of the pitches around the world are similar in ODIs. You don’t have to worry about dealing with spinners on Day 3, 4 and 5,” Clarke told The Times of India.
The scene, nevertheless, was not similar when Clarke arrived on the international stage. Even in 50-over cricket, the visiting teams had to deal with squad turners. When asked about it, Clarke said:
“It is a combination of quality of spinners and the pitches. Those days you faced very high-quality spinners in Harbhajan and Anil Kumble. In Test cricket, it became tougher. Ashwin and Jadeja to have done that in Tests. These days and on this kind of pitches, Australian batsmen shouldn’t have much of a problem. If Australia can win the first game, they will be in with a real shot.”
Clarke further joked that Australia would be more than happy to secure the services of India’s deadly spin duo- Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Both the spinner are an indispensable part of Test teams but have not featured prominently in the limited-overs game in recent times. They are also not in the squad for the first three ODIs against Australia.
“We will be happily sponsoring Ashwin and Jadeja to play for us if India don’t need them for the first three games,” Clarke chuckled. “That’s the advantage India have. I think Kuldeep Yadav is a superstar and he will be a big part of the team going forward.”