Handscomb undoes all good work
PETER Handscomb in a selfconfessed tinkerer with his technique and it could bring about a quick conclusion to what many hoped would be a long Test career.
England seamer Jimmy Anderson made the Victorian look like a tailender in the second innings at the Adelaide Oval yesterday, leading to increased scrutiny of his method of dealing with the swinging ball. Even as the critics circled Handscomb, who burst on to the Test scene last summer and scored two hundreds against Pakistan, he changed things up again.
He remained bolt upright, bat in the air, the technique he honed in long net sessions with former Victorian coach Greg Shipperd and which brought him the pile of runs that led to his Test call-up.
But Handscomb also stood still, removing the exaggerated movement of his right foot across the stumps, which had gone further and further across as Anderson continued to pepper the edge of his bat.
Adapting during an innings, to counter conditions is not new. But the change was evidence of a player untrusting in the way he had gone about things with such success last summer.
Before he headed north for the first Test Handscomb revealed he had tweaked things, through Tests against India and Bangladesh on the subcontinent, and then through his county stint in the UK over winter.
“In the subcontinent I changed a few things and it seemed to work over there,” he said. “Then in England I have a few things to change if and when I go back. It’s all about having little different things for different conditions.”
Knowing he would be challenged by the swing of English duo Anderson and Stuart Broad, however, Handscomb said he would revert to the technique that netted him 399 runs, at an average of 99, in home Tests last summer.
“I’ve still got to keep backing it in. I am comfortable with that, especially in Australia it’s been good,” he said. “I’m pretty confident with it here.”
His mid-innings change suggests otherwise, and in a twist of fate it could be the pressure being applied by his Victorian teammate Glenn Maxwell that undoes Handscomb.
An Australian win in the second Test may preclude any team changes, and conditions in Adelaide are a one-off, but Handscomb has not looked comfortable against the English bowlers in four innings.
Maxwell, meanwhile, who was overlooked for Shaun Marsh, has gone on to make a pile of Sheffield Shield runs, as directed, batting at No.3 for Victoria.
He racked up the highest Shield score for five years with an imperious 278 against NSW and backed that up with 96 against Western Australia, leading former Test seamer Peter Siddle to declare his Victorian teammate was batting better than ever.