IND vs AUS: David Warner And Mitchell Marsh Struggle Against Local Spinners As Australia Fears Spin Trio Threat

Australia could not have asked for a tougher opposition to start their World Cup campaign against. The most successful side in the history of the ODI World Cups, Australia will begin their campaign in the 2023 World Cup against hosts and favorites India.

The venue of the game has only made things tougher for the team from Down Under. The match is scheduled to be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, one of the most spin-friendly venues in India. With India boasting the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja in their ranks, it won’t be easy for the five-time world champions.

The Pat Cummins-led side is well aware of the huge spin threat and is preparing accordingly. Ahead of their World Cup opener against India on Sunday (October 8), Australia’s leading batters trained hard against spin bowling in the nets on Friday. The players trained against a variety of spin bowlers, according to Cricketnext.

Australia’s batters prepare against spinners:

Veteran opener David Warner got the proceedings underway by asking for local left-arm finger and wrist spinners. The report stated that even though the star played some crafty shots, he struggled against the local spinners and was also dismissed once.

Mitchell Marsh, who is set to open the innings with Warner, also played against left-arm spinners to tackle the threat of Kuldeep and Jadeja. And much to Australia’s concern, the hard-hitting batsman also looked uncomfortable. The batters mainly focused on rotating the strike while facing the spinners although they went for the occasional big hits.

The batters also faced their own teammates. After playing the spinners, the batsmen faced the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins. A local fast bowler also bowled to the batsmen. Starc even managed to extract some swing from the surface and dismissed Steve Smith. Smith enjoyed an extended net session as he batted for more than an hour.

Earlier this year, Australia and India had locked horns in an ODI in Chennai and the former had won that match. After being all out for 269, the visitors had bowled out the hosts for 248 to win the game by 21 runs and would be taking confidence from that outing.