Working on strategies for reverse-swing will be a major focus for Australia’s pace bowlers in their four-day game against Pakistan A in Sharjah starting on Wednesday.
Pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson says Australia have been able to make the white ball go “reverse” in the first two matches of the one-day series in Sharjah and Dubai, with game three to come in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
But the red ball will be a different challenge on spin-friendly pitches offering slow turn.
Gaining intelligence on how the desert heat and humidity affect the sideways movement in the air will be crucially important for the side ahead of the first Test in Dubai on October 22.
“We got the ball to reverse there a little bit which helped,” Johnson said after taking 3-40 in Friday’s second one-dayer in Dubai on Friday night.
“That definitely helps in these conditions with those kinds of batters used to these slower, spinning wickets.”
Johnson said the ball simply wouldn’t swing in the conventional manner, which quickly led to plan B.
“Once we saw that, we bowled a few cross-seamers and tried our very best to get one side rough and we were able to do that,” Johnson said.
Johnson says bowling cross-seam deliveries early in an innings is a popular strategy.
“India do it. South Africa did it last series,” he said.
“South Africa’s Wayne Parnell opened the bowling in the one of the games against us and he bowled cross-seam the whole time when he probably could have actually swung the ball.
“In these conditions when there’s nothing happening as a fast bowler, you’ve got to try to get something out of it.
“If we can get some reverse-swing, we’ll do everything we can, if it has to be from ball one to hold the ball cross-seam.
“We’ve got a four-day game so that will be a time to test to see what we can get.”
Pakistan had originally suggested the four-day game would be 13-a-side but the latest indications are it will be 15-a-side. Australia’s 16-man squad includes James Faulkner who’s on standby for fellow allrounder Mitchell Marsh (hamstring).
