Muttiah Muralitharan appointed Australia's spin bowling consultant for Pakistan series in UAE

Muttiah Muralitharan has been recruited by Cricket Australia to coach its spinners

Australia is leaving no stone unturned to make itself better against the spin conditions in subcontinent pitches. Recently it had decided to import Indian soil for practice pitches and now, in the coup of the decade probably, it has hired retired Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan as a coaching consultant for this year's Test series against Pakistan in the UAE, which is in accordance with the head coach Darren Lehmann's plan to have specialists assist the team in mentoring capacities.

The most successful bowler in international cricket, with over 1300 wickets to his name, Muralitharan has been working with Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon in Colombo, and has also been helping young leg-break bowler James Muirhead. His main job will be to prepare Aussie batsmen to face Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal, who wreaked havoc when England were hosted by Pakistan in UAE in 2012.

"Muttiah Muralitharan is a true great of the game and his involvement with the Australian team will bring enormous benefits," Lehmann told cricket.com.au. "He really understands the conditions we'll face and will be able to impart a great amount of knowledge. Not only will he help guide our spinners during that tour, but he will also work with our batsmen to help them prepare to play Pakistan's dangerous spin bowlers. As we've shown in recent times we'll bring in dedicated skill-specific coaching consultants to our support staff as and when we see fit. That means having more regular support from technical experts to help work on specific areas of performance.

"Most recently we had Shane Warne join us in South Africa, and throughout the Australian summer we had a range of former Australian players around the team during the Test series to help impart specialist knowledge. This time around we are fortunate enough to have Muttiah work with us," he said.

Murali working with Nathan Lyon in nets (Image courtesy: Cricket Australia)

After a 4-0 whitewash against India in its most recent tour to the subcontinent, CA is now looking into its frailties and taking the required measures to hold itself high in the international rankings.

Muralitharan has come a long way in his association with Australian cricket. From being no-balled for ‘chucking’ by Darrel Hair in 1995, to facing the same reaction Down Under over many years and even saying once he’ll never tour Australia again, he has come a long way in his relation with the Aussies.

"I'm very much excited; I know the Australian team is a very good side, but hopefully I can have a little bit of input to help them do well in the series against Pakistan,” Murali said. “Those conditions might help spinners and I know a few tricks that might help them on what to do as I have played a lot of matches in those conditions in the UAE and hopefully I can help them a little bit.

"[Saeed] Ajmal is a difficult customer for all the best batsmen in the world, but he bowls a little bit similar to me so perhaps if I can bowl to the Australian batsman it might help a little bit and give them some tips. Nathan Lyon has been bowling brilliantly but hopefully I can help him a little bit on how to bowl in these subcontinent conditions, on how to use the conditions and how to setup the field; I have bowled to most of the Pakistani batsman in the past so hopefully I can help a bit."