Marcus Stoinis sees remaining India matches as a chance to gain momentum for Ashes

09/27/2017

Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis believes that the remaining two ODIs against India can help Australia prepare for the impending Ashes series later this year. The 28-year-old also added that to succeed in Indian conditions, one needs to adopt the "Test cricket mindset" and play patient cricket.

Nothing has gone in Australia’s favour since their arrival on Indian soil for the ongoing limited-overs series as the visitors have lost all three one-day matches, gifting India an unassailable 3-0 series lead ahead of the fourth encounter in Bangalore. While many established players, including David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, have failed to make an impact in the series, Stoinis has shown promising signs by doing well both with bat and ball but failed to take his side home so far. While the focus is still very much in the remaining two games, Stoinis didn’t shy away from accepting that he wants to gain some momentum for the Ashes from the remaining two ODIs.

“Obviously, it’s pretty important to play the Ashes, but I am not thinking about that. We have got two games left in the series, and have the chance to get the momentum going before the start of the big summer. All the focus is on that,” Stoinis was quoted as saying by PTI.

Stoinis has been decent with the ball this season and has sent down 27 overs, picking up a couple of wickets at an economy rate of 5.96, but was taken to cleaners by Rohit Sharma in the third ODI in Indore. However, being a batsman himself, Stoinis understands that it’s pretty much impossible on his part not to concede regular boundaries in these conditions.

“I don’t love bowling in these conditions, but that’s the thing with IPL. You do get hit for a lot of boundaries and some of the players are unbelievable, they hit you out of the actual ground. If you expect that is not going to happen with you, that’s not true. Twenty20 cricket has changed the dynamics of one-day cricket and bowlers try to keep coming back and they are okay with being hit for boundaries. You got to be ready to take a wicket next ball and that will win you more games,” Stoinis pointed out.

“In one-day cricket, you have got to read the situation and the batsman. I pretty much think about what I would be doing in this situation – when would I not want to hit and when would I not like to take the risk – that’s the way I am going about things.”

Australia have had their moments in all three games thus far but have failed to convert any into a win. In the first match, they reduced the hosts to 87 for 5 before being wayward which helped India score 281 runs by the end of 50 overs. They repeated the same in the next two ODIs and lost the series with two games to go. But Stoinis feels the lack of experience is the major reason of such dwindling performances.

“We are still a young group, there isn’t a lot of experience. If you are playing for your country, you don’t need any motivation. The other positive that we have taken is that we had three opportunities to win each of those three games. That’s what the good teams do, they take those opportunities but we are taking encouragement from being in India and playing in their conditions,” Stoinis explained.

The all-rounder has also spoken about how it is very difficult to start hitting the big shots immediately in Indian conditions and has called for a Test match-like application in order to set up for the big hits in the latter half of the game.

“I just want to get an understanding of the conditions - sometimes it takes five balls, sometimes it takes 20. I’m not really putting a number on that. It was a bit unrealistic for me to go in there and try and hit the first couple of balls for boundaries when you don’t know what the conditions are doing,” he concluded.

Marcus Stoinis sees remaining India matches as a chance to gain momentum for Ashes

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