Australia prepare special pitches for success against India

In the recent past, Australia always fell short of achieving success on Indian pitches as they last won a Test series in India in 2004-05. Their bowlers’ inability to adapt on the spinning tracks of India has been one of the major issues behind the almost twelve-year drought.

Australia desperately wants to end this drought and according to a report in The Daily Telegraph claims that Cricket Australia (CA) is preparing a track in Queensland which will turn like Chennai. This will help the bowlers and especially the spinners to readjust their line and length while preparing for a sub-continental tour.

At the Center of Excellence in Brisbane homegrown red clay has been used to replicate the pitch conditions of Indian wickets where the ball turns. The soil is reportedly harvested from a secret location in the region of south-east Queensland.

The report also claims that CA officials have spent months in scientific research across the nation to find a specific type of dirt that could imitate Indian conditions.

The tour of Sri Lanka

Australian cricket team is scheduled to tour Sri Lanka from 26 July to play a three-match Test series and Australian spin twins Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe are preparing for their sub-continental tour in Brisbane.

Australia hasn't tasted any kind of test success in the sub-continent in the last five years but the Steve Smith led side is determined to end this humiliating record come this July. Winning the Border-Gavaskar trophy in India is considered as challenging as clinching the Ashes in England by the players, which is why CA is leaving no stone unturned for the preparations.

As the result of the artificial pitch at the Center of Excellence, CA looks confident that the coming tour of Sri Lanka will be the beginning of something special. Australia’s premier spinning duo Steve O’keefe and Nathan Lyon have already started their training as a combination.

O’keefe is confident that he will found success as a bowling combination with Nathan Lyon in sub-continent wickets and praised his partner. He said, “If is what I’m expecting it to be … I’ll certainly be in a better place to be more adaptable I think. I think one of the beauties of working with Nathan is he’s an extremely humble cricketer and he’s also very giving of his time so you can spend half an hour with Nathan working on things that basically has only got to do with me. I feel extremely fortunate to be bowling with him and I’m really looking forward to it.”