Glenn McGrath on how Australia should play spin in Asia: Score, don’t just look to survive

Former Australian fast bowling great, Glenn McGrath agrees. “The Sri Lankan tour is a big disappointment, there’s no doubt about that. The way things went on turning wickets, they have got a lot of work to do between now and March —a lot of issues to settle. I think they will play well once they go back to Australia. (But) they will find it tough in India unless they turn things around pretty quickly,” said McGrath during a promotional event here on Tuesday.

Three Sri Lankan spinners accounted for 52 Australian scalps in three matches. When the men from Down Under came to India three years ago, they were done in by R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja with the two spinners sharing 53 wickets between them. Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah had 26 wickets between them in the UAE in 2014.

Is there a mental block about playing spin on rank turners? “It could be about the mindset. They really get too defensive and look to survive. They need to find a way as a team or as an individual to cope with the turning wickets. They should have the intent to score runs. They just can’t look to survive,” McGrath observed.

During the Tests in Sri Lanka, only David Warner looked to be trying to take the attack to the opposition, scoring at a strike-rate of 88.58. Mitchell Marsh and Smith had strike-rates of 58.84 and 51.67 respectively, while Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Adam Voges moved at a snail’s pace — 42.63, 44.09 and 36.30 respectively. And Warner’s cavalier approach notwithstanding, he never dominated the rival spinners. Australia seem to be missing a Matthew Hayden upfront.

“You look back to 2001-04; Hayden decided to play the sweep shot. He played it really well and that’s how he took on the bowling on turning wickets. Our batsmen need to find ways to score and not just look to survive on turning tracks,” McGrath said.

During the 2001 tour of India, Hayden had scored 549 runs at 109.80 in three Tests, opening the innings. Three years hence, when the Aussies eventually conquered the ‘final frontier’, the left-hander wasn’t at his imperious best — 244 runs at 30.50 in four Tests — but he hardly conceded any psychological advantage to Indian spinners.

Not only the losing sequence, Smith’s mid-series departure, too, hasn’t gone well with the legends back home. Michael Clarke made his displeasure clear with a series of tweets. McGrath chose a safer option though. “I’m not sure about the exact reason behind Steve going home early; whether he has niggles or something else. Warner will enjoy the captaincy,” he said.