India vs Australia: Matt Renshaw says Dubai preparations have helped visitors counter spinners

Pune: Australian opener Matt Renshaw, on Thursday, said that the preparations in Dubai ahead of the series has helped his side in countering the spin threat from India on a rank turner of a pitch in the first Test. “We were in Dubai for two weeks and had a lot of good preparation on turning wickets over there. I was just working on different plans and making sure that I had plans for all the bowlers, especially R Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja,” said Renshaw who struck 68 in Australia’s 256 for 9 on the first day. [caption id=“attachment_3299822” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Matt Renshaw in action on day one of the first Test against India. AP[/caption] “They (Ashwin and Jadeja) are their two key threats that we’ve got against us this series and I thought we got them pretty well today. We challenged their consistency and their plans. They’re two class bowlers. You can tell why they’re number one and two in the world. I thought we played them quite well, we just worked on what we spoke about,” he added. Renshaw said he had never seen a track like the one prepared for the game in Pune. “I’ve never seen a pitch like that, so I went with a pretty open mind and tried to do just what I normally do in Australia which is bat as long as possible and weigh the bowlers down. It’s probably a bit harder to weigh them down if they’re spinners but I think I just tried to keep my plan simple against each different bowler.” He was satisfied with Australia’s end of day position thanks to fast bowler Mitchell Starc’s big hitting knock of 57 not out in 58 balls that lifted the total from 205 for 9 to get past the 250-run mark. “I think we had a really good day. We have talked about how the top-order needs to score runs, but especially the tail needs to hang on and get some bonus runs. I think we’ve had a great day and it’s a good confidence builder. “We were all sitting in out whites ready to go, but we could hear the crowd and we were trying to guess if it will be a four or a play and miss. It was a really entertaining innings and it helped us massively,” he said about Starc’s whirlwind knock that contained five fours and three sixes.