Bollinger out but Ponting's concern turns to his spin department
Jamie Pandaram
October 9, 2010
BANGALORE: Ricky Ponting has made it clear Nathan Hauritz needs to bowl more like Indian rival Harbhajan Singh.
Doug Bollinger was yesterday ruled out of the second Test, with Peter George likely to make his debut, but the spin situation is the most intriguing.
Hauritz revealed that he was directed to bowl with angles mirroring Harbhajan in the first Test in Mohali, and that because it didn't work he wants to revert back to his traditional style today in Bangalore.
But the spinner and his captain have differing views on the direction of his bowling, with Ponting saying he asked Hauritz to change because his traditional plans weren't working.
"I'm the one who asked him to try some different things, and they're things I asked him to work on about 18 months ago," Ponting said. "When he first came back into the side, I worked with him long and hard, trying to get him to create different angles for a batter, and that's talking through a batsman's eyes and what I've always found hard about facing off-spinners.
"If you look at angles Nathan creates and the shape of the ball compared to what Harbhajan does, it's chalk and cheese. What I was trying to get him to do by bowling wider at the crease was to get the ball into the rough areas a bit more.
"From where he was bowling from, it was almost impossible for him to land the ball in the footmarks.
"The reason I spoke to him about it in the first place was that I didn't think what he was trying to do was working.
"It's not as if he started the game that way, trying to use the angles I asked him to use. It was midway through the game that I asked him to adjust. He tried it for a short time then went back to his natural angles.
"I think it's important we keep trying to work with him on those things. You have to have more than one string in your bow now in international cricket, particularly if you're an off-spinner."
Hauritz said he was not comfortable bowling from wider of the crease.
"Generally, I've been a little bit tighter towards the stumps throughout my career, and we just spoke about trying to get the ball at a wider angle, sort of like what Harbhajan does, trying to get the ball to drift in, instead of drifting away," he said.
"That stuffed me around a little bit with my body and my rhythm.
"I think once I got back into what I was doing late in the afternoon [in the first innings], the ball was coming out a lot more consistently, but I don't think I'll be fiddling around too much in the second Test with that sort of thing.
"I was really happy with the way the ball came out in the first innings.''
George, 23, is competing with NSW youngster Mitchell Starc and Victorian James Pattinson for the vacant spot. Ponting said the fact George was already married helped his cricket.
"He is a lot more settled than some of the younger blokes, I guess it probably does your help to a certain degree, I know the day I got married things changes as well,'' Ponting said.
''[George] has got a lot of things in his favour, the fact he's played 18 or 19 Sheffield Shield games is a bonus for him He probably knows the step up for him mightn't be as great as for Starc or Pattinson.''
Likely Australian team: Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Clarke (vc), Shane Watson, Simon Katich, Michael Hussey, Marcus North, Tim Paine, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter George
Likely Indian team: MS Dhoni (c), Virender Sehwag, Murali Vijay, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket...ns-to-his-spin-department-20101008-16bxc.html
