Sydney:
Australian all-rounder James Faulkner today insisted that spin will not play as big a role as is being predicted in the cricket World Cup semifinal against India here on March 26.
While the quarter-final match between South Africa and Sri Lanka saw leg-spinner Imran Tahir and off-spinner JP Duminy share seven wickets among themselves, Faulkner feels that Australia won’t be troubled by the lack of spin options during the clash.
“I think they (R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja) are world-class spinners and they have done their job for a long time now. But if you see the wicket in South Africa’s match against Sri Lanka, it didn’t spin and it was quite easy to get hold of,” Faulkner said during a media interaction, here today.
“We will go in with a different team and we are playing in Australia. We will play our best XI. It depends on the wicket and what is produced on game-day,” he added.
Faulkner, who is a regular in the Indian Premier League, “is not surprised” with the turnaround of the Indian team, which has now won seven straight games in the World Cup after a winless streak throughout Australian Summer.
“I am not at all surprised that they are doing well. Every time, we have come up against them it has been a very good game of cricket and it has gone right down to the wire. If you go back on the ODI series in India (2013), a lot of runs were scored and there were a lot of great chases,” he said.
“Likewise when we have played them here, we have scored 300 and they have been there and thereabouts while chasing it,” Faulkner showed a lot of respect for his opposition.
However, Faulkner said he is unaware as to what brought about this sudden change.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been there with them or training with them, so I don’t know how to answer that one.”
According to Faulkner, one factor that has worked to India’s advantage in the World Cup is the amount of time they have spent in this country.
