New bowlers won't carry scars: Harris

There are few better credentialed judges than Ryan Harris to run a rule over Australia’s greenhorn pace bowling attack that has copped stick from rival batters and hometown critics alike.

Apart from being one of his country’s most successful and admired quicks of the past decade, Harris has been earning his stripes as a coach by working with the next generation of bowlers in the Australia A set-up and at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane.

Several whom are part of the Qantas Tour of South Africa that enters its final phase in Cape Town this week.

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As a result, he knows the character and the capabilities of the trio of previously uncapped seamers who have been part of this ODI campaign against South Africa that has yielded the world champions four consecutive losses with one game to play.

And Harris, himself a late arrival at international level having begun his career as an allrounder largely utilised as a second or third-change bowler, believes his young charges have learned plenty and will be better players for the gruelling experience.

No matter how painful it has been to be pummelled to all parts of Centurion, Wanderers, Kingsmead and St George’s Park as has happened over the past fortnight, as well as in media commentary that has dismissed Australia’s re-cast bowling group as a “second-string attack”.

Harris, who has also found himself on a learning curve as consultant coach on this tour alongside recently appointed assistant coach David Saker who takes charge of the bowling outfit, has defended the inexperienced bowlers’ efforts while acknowledging they have not measured up in execution.

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And he does not believe that Chris Tremain (4 wickets at 47.75 from three matches against South Africa), Dan Worrall (1/171 from this three outings against Ireland and the Proteas) and Joe Mennie (0/82 in his only appearance) will be damaged long-term by the mauling they have copped.

“I wouldn’t say they’re scarred,” Harris said today as the team arrived in Cape Town for the final match of the tour at Newlands on Wednesday.

“They’re asking lots of questions, a little bit to me but more so David Saker.

“He (Saker) had been unreal with them, he’s been such a big help and I’ve been under his wing, listening to what he’s saying to them and giving them confidence.

“They know they haven’t bowled that well but they also know they can bowl better.

“We always talk about that word execution, we just haven’t done that.

“They’ve got to learn, there’s a little bit to go yet but we’ve all been there.

“I was there, there have been a lot of blokes (in the same position).

“There’s only so much you can do at training and nets sessions, you’ve actually got to play the game.

“They’ve said it in meetings that we’ve had - it’s a big step up from state cricket, and that’s what they’ve learned.”

In the absence of the ODI team’s regular leaders – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson and allrounder James Faulkner – the three new boys as well as relative rookie Scott Boland (13 ODIs) have been forced to ‘grow up fast’.

In the face of perfect batting conditions at each of the venues used thus far in the series and against a rival line-up that boasts five of the world’s top 40-ranked one-day batters – Hashim Amla (3), Quinton de Kock (9) Faf du Plessis (11), JP Duminy (37) and David Miller (39).

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By contrast, only three of the 11 Australia ODI bowlers currently rated among the world’s top 100 – experienced seamer John Hastings (24), allrounder Mitchell Marsh (45) and leg spinner Adam Zampa (65) – are part of the world champions’ current 14-man touring party.

And while history will show that this Australia outfit has been one of the least successful ODI teams to wage a bilateral campaign overseas, Harris does not see it as a true reflection of the quality of touring personnel.

Certainly not the bowlers that he has helped to mentor in the recent past, and will continue to tutor over coming summers.

“I think they’re better than what this series has shown,” he said of the three young bowlers who earned their selection by finishing among the top five wicket-takers in last season’s Sheffield Shield competition.

“I think coming into a series against pretty good players in their own backyard, small grounds and flat wickets it’s a bloody hard thing to do.

“We know that they’re good bowlers, there’s no doubt about that.

“They’ve got a lot of ability, it’s just when you step up in conditions that we’re in it makes it harder to learn as quick as you should, or you can.

“There’s been a lot of criticism, I’ve read some of it but they have to learn at some stage and there’s only one way to learn, and that’s to play it.

“They had an opportunity on this tour and they’ve done the best they can at the time.

“We know they need improvement, they know they need improvement and in the game (at Port Elizabeth last Sunday) I thought Tremain and Boland bowled beautifully up front.”

And if anyone can unlock the secret to turning around results against South Africa after a drubbing at Port Elizabeth ahead of a final fixture under the shadow of Table Mountain at Newlands, it is Harris.

Given that’s precisely what he did in 2014, albeit in Test match form, after he admits to being treated “like a bowling machine” at the hands of Amla as Michael Clarke’s team copped a thrashing inside four days to level that epic three-game series.

Only for Harris to complete one of Australia’s most memorable recent Test wins and a series triumph that carried them (briefly) to the world number one ranking with an heroic day-five bowling effort that finished with his pair of final-over wickets.

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The 36-year-old admits he devoted a lot of time in the nets at Newlands prior to that game to work (with then bowling coach Craig McDermott) on a number of technical aspects of his game that ultimately yielded a remarkable turnaround.

“I changed a lot actually because I thought that was my last game of Test cricket in Port Elizabeth (where) I bowled a pile of rubbish,” Harris said when asked if bowlers can fundamentally alter their game plans in such a short time frame.

“But you’ve just got to keep working on your game.

“I wanted to get here (to Cape Town in 2014) and really go and do some bowling in the nets.

“Some guys want to step away and release the stress that they’re thinking.

“You can over-think this game so much, a lot of it’s technical but there’s a lot more of it that’s mental.

“I don’t think they (the current group of ODI bowlers) need to do too much to be honest, they just need to be focused on the day and execute.

“We’ve got good enough players in this team to win cricket games.”