Australians practice without the front pad to survive Bangladeshi spin attack

A few Australian cricketers chose to practice in the nets without their front pads on ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh at Mirpur. It is believed that the method will help the Aussie batsmen deal with the Bangladeshi spin attack on a pitch which is expected to be a great turner. Aussie youngster Matt Renshaw and Usman Khawaja who hopes to make it into the XI for the first Test batted without their front pads in the nets.

Previously, legends of the game like Rahul Dravid, Michael Vaughan, and Dean Jones have mentioned the benefits of practicing without pads. Aussie middle order batsman Glenn Maxwell claimed that former Aussie Justin Langer brought this method into the limelight when he was the batting coach of the team 5 years ago. Maxwell also mentioned that this type of practice teaches a batsman how to survive only with the help of the bat.

What Maxwell had to say:

“It’s probably something we did back in 2012 when ‘JL’ (Langer) was the batting coach,” Maxwell told reporters at Sher-e Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday.

“We did it a little in the nets when we were in Dubai (for Australia’s pre-India tour camp earlier this year). ” added Maxwell. “I think the main thing is to basically use your bat: if you don’t have the safety of your front pad there it makes you get your leg out of the way and actually use your bat. ” he said.

“It’s more about refining your defence and making sure you’re trusting the fact you’ll hit the ball and not hoping that your pad’s there just to save you. ” Maxwell said. “It’s more for the (spinners) that are hitting the stumps repeatedly and Bangladesh do that really well. They bowl the ball stump-to-stump and they put pressure on your defence. ”

“That’s one thing that we have worked on and will continue to work on.” said Maxwell.

Maxwell continued “I’ve done a fair bit of it, I did a lot of it back home, a lot of my practice revolves around defence and expanding from there.”