Former captain Allan Border advises Travis Head to improve his technique against spinners

Pic courtesy/AFP

Former captain Allan Border has advised southpaw Travis Head to improve his technique against spinners if he wants to replicate Matthew Hayden's success when Australia tour India for four-Test series next year. Head was named as the 'Player of the Series' during the last Ashes but his form drastically dipped in sub-continental conditions (against Pakistan and Sri Lanka) where he managed to aggregate only 91 runs with the highest score of 26.

"He's (Head) got to sit down and work out a method better than it's going at the moment, that's for sure," Border was quoted as saying in cricket.com.au. Border said that he has spoken to Head about batting on wickets which are spinning. "I have talked to him (Head) a little bit about batting on spinning wickets. He's got to learn how to sweep and sweep well. And he's got to use his feet, people don't seem to be prepared to go down the track and defend, even," added Border, who has 11,174 Test runs to his name.

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"We are going to sub-continent a lot, so if he wants to be in the frame, he needs to learn how to play the turning ball," said Border and cited the example of Hayden.
"Hayden's a great example," quipped Border. "There's just few subtle things. He's a very good player against anything other than the turning ball. That's the chink he's got to work on, but it's (play the) sweep shot, use your feet, get on the front foot and when you are trying to defend, use nice soft hands," was Border's suggestion for Head, who has played 28 Tests.

Hayden had a superb campaign in India in 2001 where he scored 549 runs, including two hundreds and a souble hundred. Australia is set to tour India next year for a four-Test series.

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