Sanga's wisdom a guide for Aussie batsmen

Having raised eyebrows and ire by enlisting Sri Lanka’s greatest-ever bowler Muthiah Muralidaran to help them prepare for the current Test series against his former team, Australia could do worse than tap into the wisdom of the nation’s greatest-ever batter, Kumar Sangakkara.

The world’s best Test team has arrived in the colonial coastal stronghold of Galle to begin three days of preparations before the second Test, which they must win to hold any hope of securing this three-match series against seventh-ranked Sri Lanka, begins on Thursday.

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After selection chair Rod Marsh conceded there was little more the Australians could have done to prepare for the opening Test in Kandy, coach Darren Lehmann has pointed the finger squarely at the batters who failed to combat Sri Lanka’s three-pronged spin attack in both innings.

With a dishonourable mention for the efforts of his bowlers in the second innings, where Sri Lanka stole the game by posting an unattainable 353.

The fact that 18 of Australia’s 20 wickets fell to Sri Lanka’s spinners, and that 11 of those dismissals were either lbw or bowled, suggests Australia’s batting was utterly at sea on a pitch at Pallekele Stadium that at no stage offered extravagant turn.

Lehmann, who was today confirmed as Bupa Head Coach of Australia’s men’s team until October 2019, acknowledged that a capacity to find batsmen able to cope with the spinning ball on subcontinental pitches remained the great challenge of his tenure.

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But he also noted that the issues his team had with 38-year-old Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath (match figures of 9-103 at Kandy) were a carbon copy of their failure against Pakistan’s left-arm orthodox Zulfiqar Babar who took 14 wickets in two Tests in the UAE as Australia crashed to consecutive defeats on its previous Asian sojourn in 2014.

"He (Herath) bowled at the stumps, consistently at the stumps – it’s something that we've got to do," Lehmann said today when asked why Herath was so consistently threatening on a pitch that offered variable bounce but only occasional sharp turn.

"When they're getting hit on the pads, it's probably not spinning.

"I think we had the problem in Dubai with Zulfiqar.

"We addressed that in Dubai, obviously a different playing group, and we addressed it before the series here.

"They've just got to get better at it. Hit the ball more and not get lbw for a start.

"That's probably our challenge."

In order to get better at it, the Australians might turn to the sage words of Sangakkara who retired from Test cricket a year ago boasting a formidable record of 12,400 Test runs at an average of 57.41, with 38 centuries.

Of which almost 80 per cent (30) of those scored in subcontinental conditions either at home in Sri Lanka or in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the UAE.

Interviewed recently for the UK Professional Cricketers’ Association’s on-line magazine ‘All Out Cricket’, Sangakkara revealed in absorbing detail the way in which he and other greats approached batting against spinners, and the traps to studiously avoid when facing them on turning pitches.

"Number one, they have a very solid defence, so they play the ball with the bat rather than the pad,” Sangakkara said when asked what characterised the best players of the spin, advice that should resonate with many incumbent Australia Test batters.

"And they judge length very well.

"Forward when they’re forward, and right back when they go back, which is an important thing on wickets that turn, to be able to judge the length, judge it quickly, and then commit.

"Most of them also sweep very well, which is a very important shot against spin, and now with the reverse sweep, it’s even better."

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Where the Australians were often caught propping tentatively forward on the crease trying to nullify spin that often did not arrive, Sangakkara claimed the masters of slow bowling that he witnessed – including ex- Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, Pakistan’s Salim Malik and Indian pair Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid – regularly stretched much further forward.

But he also admitted that was in an era that pre-dated the use of the DRS video technology that now ensures getting in a lengthy stride no longer saves a batter from being adjudged lbw.

Sangakkara also advocated batters play with their bat out in front of their pad, especially on pitches like the one at Pallekele that didn’t spin extravagantly, "so they don’t have the opportunity of the ball hitting their pad".

It’s an evolutionary shift from the era when batters were constantly told that keeping bat and pad close together was the most effective way of keeping the ball out.

"Only if the wicket’s ragging (sic) and the bowler’s bowling a wide line outside off stump will you have your bat and your pad slightly together, which negates the lbw if it does turn and hits you on the pad," Sangakkara said.

"The game’s evolved.

"These days a lot of batsmen have a slightly wider stance when they play spin than when they play pace, so they spread themselves, their centre of gravity is lower, the head’s slightly lower so they can judge the flight and the dip, and therefore make it easier to judge the length.

"Some great players of spin use their feet a lot, some very good players of spin don’t use their feet much."

The 38-year-old, who will return to UK county cricket with Surrey after a stint in the Caribbean Premier League, noted that another crucial weapon in mastering spin bowling is to regularly rotate the strike.

Which allows batters breathing space and prevents bowlers like Herath from being able to settle into a routine and execute a strategy by strangling an individual opponent with his impeccable line, length and variations.

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Sangakkara said the key to that skill, to prevent batters becoming bogged down and then succumbing to a rash stroke in a bid to release pressure, was clever wrist work that allows great players to manoeuvre the ball into gaps in the field, even if it means hitting against the spin.

Which, like leaving a gap between bat and pad, has long been regarded a mortal batting sin.

"All of these are important traits, but they all start with a fearless defence," Sangakkara said.

"When a player can play a back-foot or a forward defence with absolute authority, there’s no more demoralising sight for a good spinner who’s turning the ball."

Or even one, as in the case of Herath for much of his lengthy spells during Sri Lanka’s 106-run win at Kandy, is not.

That is expected to change in Galle, which is historically regarded as the most spin conducive Test pitch in Sri Lanka.

And given the success of the home team’s three-man spin attack, and the paucity of overs needed from their two seamers (one of which, skipper Angelo Mathews, bowled just three overs for the match), Lehmann is expecting an even greater spin challenge come Thursday.

"I think it will still spin from day one," Lehmann said prior to his team’s first training session at the Galle stadium that was rebuilt in the wake of the devastating Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

"That's a challenge for the batting group, getting through those tough times.

"Now they have seen (Sri Lanka’s debutant left-arm wrist spinner Lakshan) Sandakan, it is going to be a lot easier to play him and Herath is obviously a quality bowler.

"They (Australia’s batters) have got to work out a plan.

"We have talked about it a lot so they know what to do, it's just executing more than anything else."

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And mindset if Sangakkara, the fifth-highest scoring batsman in Test history behind Tendulkar, Dravid, Australia’s Ricky Ponting and South African Jacques Kallis, is to be taken at his word.

"Fear is something that you need to avoid at all times," Sangakkara told All Out Cricket in his verbal master class on batting against spin.

"The fear of getting out, the fear of making a mistake.

"If you have fear in your mind it’s very difficult to learn and grow."