The chat that changed the first Test

Sridharan Sriram, the Chennai-born allrounder who once opened the batting for India in an ODI alongside Sachin Tendulkar, has been around Australia’s Test team long enough to recognise a player out of sorts.

That’s what the 41-year-old consultant spin coach’s instincts told him when he descended from the tourists’ viewing room and headed towards the playing arena when lunch was called on day two of the opening Test against India at Pune last Friday.

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At that point, India had begun their innings in pursuit of an Australia total of 260 that many experts believed a touch skinny against such an imposing batting line-up, even if the Pune pitch was drier than the city’s restaurants during that day’s Mahashivratri religious celebration.

India had narrowed the deficit to less than 200 for the loss of three top-order wickets, but the spin threat that was expected to come from left-armer Steve O’Keefe on the dry, crumbling surface had failed to materialise.

Indeed, O’Keefe’s first spell had yielded 0-23 from seven overs of what the bowler himself would later describe as “pretty ordinary” offerings and Sriram noted his fellow left-arm orthodoxer was anxious, and decided he might benefit from some counsel.

Image Id: 62B6E990A39243969B954BA89469CDEF Image Caption: Sriram giving throw-downs ahead of the first Test // Getty

“I came down from the viewing area and I knew he was a little disturbed,” Sriram said today as a handful of Australians who played little or no role in their team’s drought-breaking Test win returned to the Pune venue for a training session.

“He was walking around - I didn't know whether to really speak to him or not. 

“But the conversation happened and he said 'I think I need to have a bowl with you in the centre.' 

“He told me he was a bit nervous to start off, and he was in his comfort zone and trying to bowl as he would do in Australia. 

“But, I said 'SOK, what do you think you need on this wicket?' and he said 'I need to go a little bit rounder and quicker.' 

“And I just said to him 'go for it mate' because you know what you can do and you know what you need to do’. 

“Just go for it.”

It was the chat that changed the Test.

From the moment Sriram and O’Keefe completed their impromptu centre-wicket training run while all else were enjoying lunch, the Australian spinner returned the extraordinary figures of 12-47.

The best return by an Australian in a Test on the subcontinent.

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The second-best by a visiting bowler in what is universally regarded the most challenging environment that touring Test teams will face.

And the overwhelming reason why Australia now holds a 1-0 lead in the four-match Qantas Tour of India, a campaign in which many thought the best they might hope for was to win the occasional coin toss.

Sriram, who began his career in his home state of Tamil Nadu and then progressed to India’s Under-19 team as a specialist left-arm spinner before improving his batting skills to become considered a genuine allrounder, has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Australian cricket.

In 2000, he joined future India Test players SS Das and Mohammad Kaif as the inaugural recipients of a Gavaskar-Border Scholarship that enabled them to broaden their experiences through a stint at Australia’s vaunted cricket academy, then based in Adelaide.

Image Id: F455ACD6875B48B8BDF1DDED0722DEA1 Image Caption: Sriram after being dismissed in a 2004 ODI against Bangladesh // Getty

Training under the tutelage of then head coach (later to be National Selection Panel chair) Rod Marsh, and alongside young Australian talents the likes of Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Hauritz, Sriram learned quickly the differences in attitude and approach between the two nations.

His relationship with Marsh and his off-sider Troy Cooley (now the Bupa National Cricket Centre Head Coach) led to him being engaged as a spin bowling consultant working with Australia A and development squads in Asian conditions.

He was enlisted to work with the Australia Test team for the planned 2015 tour to Bangladesh that was ultimately postponed for security reasons, but was part of the touring party for last year’s disastrous 0-3 drubbing in Sri Lanka.

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O’Keefe was also in line for that Bangladesh campaign, and was to have been a key part of plans in Sri Lanka until he sustained a hamstring strain in the opening Test and was forced to return home.

And even though he only sees Sriram sporadically, the pair have established and maintained a respectful rapport that allows them to share ideas and insights through a relationship that exploded into bloom at Pune last week.

"I have not been with (O’Keefe) right through,” Sriram said today.

“I've seen him in patches, but the good thing is I can even follow him bowling in the Sheffield Shield game because I can see it on Cricket Australia's website (cricket.com.au).

“I can see what he's doing, and I have watched even some games live, I've watched the Sheffield Shield games. 

“So, I think he wanted it badly. 

“He knew that he was the sort of subcontinent expert that the Australians were looking for, and he knew that he had to play over here and I think he stepped up to that beautifully.”

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Australia have employed a number of consultant spin coaches in the recent past, some with far heftier public profiles and international cricket resumes than Sriram, who remains little known outside Indian cricket circles.

Ex-Test leg-spinner Shane Warne joined the fold during Australia’s 2014 tour to South Africa to help prepare spinners for the World T20 tournament that followed.

And the game’s most successful spin bowler, Sri Lanka’s Muthiah Muralidaran, has been enlisted on two recent occasions – for the Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in 2014 and last year’s series against his former team.

Both campaigns in which Australia failed to win a Test.

But as Sriram points out, it’s the value of the wisdom and encouragement that can be imparted rather than the weight of experience you bring that carries the most valued currency.

“I don’t think the name really matters, does it?” Sriram said today, when asked about how he ranks alongside spin doctors of greater repute.

“What does a name matter? 

“I mean, I come in and if I talk sense, they listen to me.

“If I talk bulls--t they don’t.  It’s as simple as that. 

“I think it’s taken time (but) they’ve really been open, that’s the best thing about this Australian team. 

“They’ve been open to listen first and then obviously I made sense a little bit and they started listening and they started trying out things in the nets and saw that it worked for them.”

As well as out in the middle.

During that pivotal lunch interval.

Test Squads

India (for first two Tests): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Hardik Pandya.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Australia's schedule in India

Feb 23-27, First Test, Pune

Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru

Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi

Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala