Australia will draw confidence from A team's experience: Sriram

CHENNAI: Ever since the Australian team was announced for the upcoming Test series in India, there has been a lot of talk on how they would fare in the subcontinent conditions against a quality Indian side.
However, former India cricketer Sridharan Sriram, who was appointed as spin consultant of the Australian team for the India series on Tuesday, has seen at close quarters the success of a few fresh faces in this Australian squad, such as left-arm spinners Steve O'Keefe, Ashton Agar and batsman Peter Handscomb, on Indian soil.
It was Sriram, as consultant, who played a pivotal role in guiding an inexperienced Australia A side led by Usman Khawaja to win over India A 1-0 - which had the likes of skipper Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, leg-spinner Amit Mishra and pacer Umesh Yadav in the ranks - in an unofficial two-Test series at Chennai in 2015.
Though Sriram did mention that India is a “tough place” to tour for any side, the 40-year-old believes O'Keefe and Handscomb will “draw confidence” from the experience they had in 2015.
“India is a quality side. They are playing exceptionally good cricket and India has always been regarded as a tough place to tour for any Test playing nation. O'Keefe and Handscomb have had the feel of playing here before and I'm sure they will draw confidence from that experience. O'Keefe and Nathan Lyon share a great rapport and they generally feed off each other very well,” Sriram told TOI.
He also said the players have spoken a lot as a group with regards to the skill sets required to be successful in the subcontinent. Sriram mentioned that one of the key things to being successful in India as a batsman is to have the right scoring options. “Things the Australia coach has spoken about for being successful in India as batsmen are: sound defence, lots of patience, right scoring options and the ability to rotate strike,” added Sriram.