Hastings eyes fresh challenges in Africa

It won't only be the on-field fast-bowling personnel that will be radically altered when Australia undertakes their month-long ODI tour to South Africa that immediately follows the current campaign in Sri Lanka.

While the world champions' first-choice new-ball pairing of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will miss the tour paving the way for some untried talent to stake their claims, it will also be the first outing for the team's new-look pace bowling mentors.

Assistant coach (and former England bowling coach and Victoria supremo) David Saker on the first outing of his new role, in concert with former Test quick Ryan Harris who makes his maiden appearance as Bupa Support Team Bowling Coach.

Quick Single: Harris joins Aussie backroom staff

And there is nobody more excited about the double-barrelled appointment than incumbent seamer John Hastings who has been a disciple of Saker's for many years at Victoria and who has been working with Harris at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane during his recent recovery from ankle surgery.

"Sakes (Saker) has been fantastic for me, especially in my early, formative years," Hastings said on the eve of the announcement of the squad that Australia will send for the Qantas Tour of South Africa in a fortnight.

"He really helped me understand and know my own game.

"He said to me 'you're never going to bowl as quick as all the other guys' so you need to be skilful, you need to be able to bowl at the death and you need to have all the different types of deliveries.

"So that's one thing that I learned from him very early on and it's one thing that's helped me throughout my career.

"I've loved working with Sakes every chance I get and I think he'll be really good for the Australian team.

"You know exactly where you stand and I think his opinion and his knowledge of the game is very good as well, so he comes across as very honest and you're able to talk to him about anything so I think he'll be a great addition."

"But I'm looking forward to working with Ryno (Harris) as well.

"I did a bit of work with him up at the (NCC) before I left (for Sri Lanka).

"He was there before he went off with the NPS boys (as coach of the National Performance Squad in the recent quadrangular 'A' Series in Queensland) so I'm looking forward to seeing him again and catching up.

"From all reports he's a really good coach in the making and I'm sure this will aid his development."

With Starc and Hazlewood being rested ahead of a hectic home summer schedule and next February's four-Test tour to India, and a number of other quicks (including James Pattinson, Pat Cummins and Nathan Coulter-Nile) still sidelined through injury, the pace complement for the South Africa tour will doubtless carry a fresh look.

Quick Single: Contenders to fill Starc, Hazlewood spots

But given the form that he's shown since being rushed back into the one-day set-up in Sri Lanka and despite missing four months due to his ankle injury, Hastings looms as the most experienced and potent member of a re-cast seam battery.

In conditions that are expected to be vastly different from the constant stream of dry, bare, spin-friendly pitches the tourists have encountered during their two months in Sri Lanka.

If, as seems likely, Hastings is given the nod to take over as the interim leader of the fast bowling cartel he will grasp and relish the opportunity.

Which would also represent a remarkable turnaround of fortunes given he endured a horror run with shoulder injuries before suffering a stress fracture in his ankle during the Indian Premier League Earlier this year as others forged ahead of him in the queue for national selection.

"That (the squad for the South Africa tour) is going to get announced in the coming days, and hopefully I've got a plane ticket over there," Hastings said today.

"I'd love to get to South Africa again and if I did have a chance to lead the attack it would be something that I've probably worked towards over the last few years.

"I never really thought that I would get that opportunity, but now that I have and now that I've come back and done okay I'd really be looking to stick my hand up there and just try and be that leader.

"For some of the young bowlers that are coming over, whoever that may be, I'm not too sure.

"But I'd love a chance to lead the Australian cricket team attack, that would be a big feather in my cap."

A trip to South Africa would not only allow Hastings to display those skills he developed under Saker's tutelage years earlier, it would enable him to dispel the talk that his hit-the-deck style of bowling and subtle variations are best suited to slow, unhelpful pitches in subcontinental regions.

A stereotype that has been enhanced by his effectiveness in the IPL and in the past two matches of the current ODI series in Sri Lanka where he captured an ODI career-best 6-45 in Dambulla last week.

But one that the 30-year-old is hell-bent on disproving.

"The thing that I really do love is proving people wrong, and the one thing I don't like is being pigeon-holed into (being a bowler only suited to) certain types of surfaces," Hastings said.

"So for me, it (South Africa) will be another opportunity to show that I can do it on those types of pitches.

"It will be another challenge, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to adapt quickly and use that surface to my advantage."