Debasis Sen, Visakhapatnam: Aaron Finch and his team got some valuable inputs of former Australia opener Mathew Hayden ahead of the first T20I against India to be played at the ACA VDCA stadium in Visakhapatnam. Hayden,considered as one of the finest players of spin bowling shared his knowledge with the Australian batsmen on how to tackle slow bowlers .
The burly Australian was invited by his long time friend and opening partner Justin Langer to share his inputs to Handscombe, Finch and other Aussie batsman about countering the Indian spinners in these conditions.
Australian captain Aaron Finch on being asked about the presence of Mathew Hayden said, “It was great obviously to have JL’s (Justin Langer) great mate and a legend of the game come back and someone who’s had so much success here in India as a batsman to to get around to this field the boys and have a good chat was great.”
Hayden, who is here in his role as commentator was also seen giving tips on slip catching.
“He was a great slip catcher, so anything that the guys can learn, he was chatting about batting especially at the top of the order stuff,” said Finch.
Meanwhile the visitors have added two spinners in their touring party to help their batsman in the nets. Kerala’s left-arm chinaman spinner KK Jiyas and Mumbai leg spinner Pardeep Sahu were seen bowling at the Australian batsmen on Saturday.
India take on Australia in two Twenty20s and five ODIs in what’s their final international engagements before the World Cup from May 30.