TIM’S TIP ENDS PAINE

Hand-me-down technique pays off

HAPPY Christmas. I know it’s hard for a lot of people out there with what is going on and a lot of you are separated from your families.

We are all thinking of you and hope everything will be a little more normal again soon.

Hopefully last week’s Test match in Adelaide gave you as much enjoyment as it did us.

We were so excited to play it. The feeling on the field and between the teams was special — we were so happy to be out there playing again. I’m sure you saw the smiles on our faces and spirit between the teams.

Next stop, the MCG for Boxing Day. There’s nothing like this stadium on the first day of a Test.

The team is playing with confidence. I can’t see us making changes but it’s going to be a challenge to take on India in different conditions. I’m sure they will come back at us hard.

In the past 18 months we learned how good Marnus Labuschagne is as a batsman and in recent months I have discovered just how good he is as a batting coach.

He spends a lot of time coaching kids at his Brisbane club and I noticed last year he was always good at explaining why he was doing something or why something would work.

We played Queensland in the first game in the Sheffield Shield this year and I was bowled in the second innings on the top of off stump. I’ve got out a lot like that, getting squared up, and I was talking to him about it at dinner and took it back to the hotel room, where we ended up shadow batting and he advised me to make a few changes.

I did a bit of work with our Tasmanian batting coach, Wade Townsend, in the week before the next game and I just thought, “Bugger it, I am going to change a few things”.

The first time I did it was the South Australian game and I got a hundred. There haven’t been too many of them in my career, so I was pumped.

People noticed I was batting a lot in the lead-up to that game. I was in the nets until 8pm one night and had more practice the next morning.

I did that because I’d changed my set-up. I altered where I was holding the bat — where my hands were in the set-up — and few other little things. I only decided to do it three or four days before the game, so I had to get used to it.

Marnus had been watching Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson for some time and noticed their hands were near their back hip in the set-up, and had adopted it from them.

I guess it’s a hand-me-down technique.

Part of it is I am much stiller and ready to pounce on anything, to play the ball later.

It’s a simpler set-up whereas during my career I would feel different day-to-day and have to tinker.

I felt great in the middle in that first innings. I told myself not to worry about the pink ball or the lights. I was determined to try to score, because in those conditions if you think about surviving you will get a ball that gets you out.

Speaking of batting, what about our openers? It was great to see Joe Burns thrive in that second innings.

Part of our team culture is to stick with people who have served us well. Loyalty is important, as is Joe. He was out of form in the Sheffield Shield but we knew how good he could be if we backed him.

Matthew Wade demonstrated our “we not me” principle. He put the team ahead of himself by moving out of his spot to open. Doing team things it is more important to us than anything. Matty took one for the team and that’s why we will always back him.

Another bloke who needs a shout out is the “baby giraffe”, Cameron Green. What a great kid. He moves well in the field and he looked like he belongs.

And another thing: our bowlers proved why they are the best in the world.

See you on Boxing Day.