TERRITORY KIDS MEET THEIR HEROES
HOPEFUL Australian debutant Mitchell Swepson believes Darwin’s turning pitches will have him ready to leave the Bangladesh batsmen in a spin if he gets an opportunity for the first of two Tests, starting August 27.
Swepson is just 23, but the national selectors were so impressed with his Sheffield Shield form last summer that he was included in Australia’s touring squad in India, which saw the hosts win the four- match series 2-1 back in March.
The Aussies will play a competitive inter-squad match over three days from tomorrow to Wednesday on three separate spinning decks at the Marrara Cricket Ground, to emulate the conditions they will face in Bangladesh.
“I’ve heard from some locals that the decks up here are pretty spin friendly, so I’m looking forward to the first session and seeing what they’re like,” Swepson said.
“Hopefully I can put in place some plans that I want to take over to Bangladesh.”
Swepson is confident the hard work he’s carried out at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane will hold him in good stead by the time the first Test in Dhaka comes around.
“(I’ve worked on) a bit of everything. Stock ball obviously in the pre-season — it’s good to work on it and get that right,” he said.
“More recently I’ve been working on variations and taking what I took out of India over to Bangladesh.
“The hybrid (spinning) pitch in Brisbane has been good. It’s been up and running the whole pre-season, and I’ve done plenty of bowling on that which will hopefully be similar to what we get over there.
“Each place we went to the pitches were different in India. So you’ve got to be ready to adapt your bowling plan from place to place.
“Dhaka could be completely different to Chittagong (the second Test) and I’ve got to prepare for that.”
While he did not play a Test in India, the young Queensland legspinner learnt a great deal from his experience.
“I picked up a few things in India just being around the squad and being able to be at Test matches with a front seat to watch how the blokes go about it,” Swepson said.
“The past six months have been big for me. I’ve worked hard on my bowling and coming back this pre-season I was really happy with where my bowling was at, on the back of being on that Indian tour.
“So I’m really happy.”