Back to the basics: Hussey
First Published : 19 Feb 2012, 10:32
Last Modified : 19 Feb 2012, 14:34
Brisbane, Feb 19: Smarting from two back-to-back losses, Australia are looking to gain back the momentum that they had at the start of the series by beating India here today. With the tri-series still wide open, veteran batsman Michael Hussey feels that the hosts need to focus on the basics to get back in the reckoning for the title.
Excerpts from Mr. Cricket’s pre-match interview with the media:
On coming back from two consecutive losses
The last two games have been a little disappointing. We have probably lost a bit of momentum that we had from the Test series and from the start of the one-day series so that’s something we are going to try and rectify quickly. [...] It’s [time] for everyone to go back to the basics and […] do the basics for a longer period of time and hopefully we can do them better than the opposition. That’s the best we can do to try and change the momentum.
On whether playing after just a day’s break was a big challenge
No, I don’t think so. I think we had a relatively short game in Sydney on Friday night, unfortunately. We were getting beaten comprehensively. We had more time to recover and our bowlers didn’t probably bowl their full quota of overs. We were very diligent with our recovery process and things like that so I wouldn’t expect that to be an issue whatsoever today. I know the guys are really hurting from Friday night’s loss against Sri Lanka and looking to rectify that with a really good performance against India today.
On whether selection processes have had impact on Australia’s performance
Not within the changing room, not at all. We haven’t discussed it much at all. The players have been [given] constant indication by the coaching staff to reflect. From our point of view, we’re going to concentrate more on the things that we have done wrong in the field. There has been a lot of discussion outside the arena but from inside it’s not something we’ve discussed at all.
