IND vs AUS: Australia's middle order batter Peter Handscomb has shared an anecdote of teaching from former India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane. Considered a good player of spin, Handsomb was trusted by the Aussie selectors to perform in India during the Border Gavaskar series. The right-handed batter is the second-highest runs scorer for his side after two games.
The Aussie star has reflected on an incident involving Rahane helping him learn about facing spin conditions in India. The two shared the dressing room during the IPL 2016 when they played for the Rising Pune Supergiants. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Handscomb was in awe of the shots played by Rahane and learnt the trick to play against the spinners. "He was playing these shots off his back foot through midwicket which I thought were ridiculous. I was like, wow I need someone to teach me that. So we spoke about getting his front leg out of the way and being able to manipulate the ball from there. "That helps your back foot become a scoring zone, and then if they overpitch, you can hopefully score off the front foot as well. Then all their good balls you just find a way to defend," Handscomb said.
The Aussie right-hander is one of two half-centurions from his side on the tour so far. In the four innings that he played in the first two matches, Handscomb has scored 109 runs, including an unbeaten 72-run knock in the first innings of the Delhi Test. However, the batter was outdone in the second innings. "India personally outplayed me in that situation. They gave me my scoring gap, but without the reward, so it was just going to be a single, but tempted me to hit the ball there.
"And I fell for that and tried to manipulate the ball there when, had that been my third ball of the first innings, I would have just tried to defend, because I was still trying to understand the pitch and what was going on. For me, it's just about being stronger and starting again. I probably walked out there thinking 'I'm still on 72 not out, I can just pick up where I left off', and you can't think like that, " he added.
Handscomb regret mistakes made by team
Meanwhile, the Aussie batter has regretted the mistakes his team made in the second innings of the second test. "We still had a first innings lead, we'd done well there, we'd started well in the second innings and then it all just happened really fast and we didn't stop it at any stage. The challenge is if there's a moment where we have lost two or three quick ones, it's being able to stop the flow for a second and let us all just take a step back, have a breath and then continue on with the game, and hopefully stem the flow of wickets that way," he said.
