Australia might have taken five spinners to India to tackle the dust-bowl tracks but former coach John Buchanan feels that fast bowlers are likely to make a difference in the four-Test series starting in Chennai on February 22.
“You don’t take spinners just for the sake of taking a spinner. Indians are so used to playing spin bowling there is no guarantee that they are going to make an impact in the series,” Mr. Buchanan was quoted in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
The 59-year-old former cricketer feels Australia has a good bowling unit but they need to adjust to the conditions in the sub-continent. “I do think it’s a good pace attack; it depends how it adapts to the conditions it’s about to face,” he said.
Mr. Buchanan, who is currently New Zealand director of cricket, said: “They’re going to India now in February/March. That makes a difference as well because some of the wickets still provide a little bit of bounce and pace at the start of the summer, whereas potentially by this time of their season wickets have been subjected to plenty of heat and plenty of wear and possibly the ability for pace bowlers to extract good pace and bounce are limited. It really means that the pace bowlers have really got to look at their strategies with an old ball and what they can do with that.”
Buchanan was head coach during Australia’s historic 2-1 triumph on the subcontinent under the leadership of Adam Gilchrist.
