Plan A: Try to take the outside edge. Plan B: Bowl straight with a funky leg field. Plan C: Put in a leg groove. And away. Travis Head, Australia A captain and national skipper Tim Paine, who will be planning for the coming weeks, conjured up a way to win a well-seeded Cheteshwar Pujara for Australia A against the touring Indians. and don’t be surprised if we see a lot of it in the next few weeks.
It’s far-fetched to say Australia had an answer to the batsman who was their main enemy two years ago, but the sacking was noteworthy enough not to just drop off. On this 2018-19 tour, where he scored 521 runs and saw 1,258 deliveries, Pujara fell in love with a duck in a very similar way when he flipped Pat Cummins backwards and forwards in the second innings of the MCG Test Marcus was caught well Harris, who was also the catcher today in a quirk.
The fact that Australia fell so far behind in that game made it a mere footnote – India would continue to comfortably win and take a 2-1 lead – but as preparations for the friendly ahead of the first Test in Adelaide are on the decline December 17th it would not have gone unnoticed. It also came on the back of Pujara, who fought off all other ideas of the strong Australian A attack for him, including aiming the more traditional notches with the new ball before adjusting the lines after lunch.
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“I worked closely with Painey out there and tried a few different things,” said Head. “We’ll be there on the first day and it was our first big hit against him. We have another inning and then another game before the first test, so nice that a plan could work.
“We know what he can bring and he brought that back today so there were no surprises. But I felt like the way we roll over to him from that stage and choke the scoreboard against him and could close, it was really good. It was nice to see his back. “
However, Head believes that it depends on the surfaces whether or not the line of attack of the leg groove is a regular approximation of Pujara. It’s no secret that Australia wants pace and bounce on the fields for the four Tests, despite the fact that the plan for Pujara in Melbourne was the slowest spot in the series.
“At the beginning we tried to get past him and catch him in the slips. That’s how it was played, but as soon as the ball softened it went from stump to stump,” said Head.
“I think you’re going through plans A, B and C and I think a lot depends on who is bowling and what kind of wickets we play on. The Adelaide Oval is very different from the MCG and Sydney . “
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