Lee has shock value: Clarke

By Sahan Bidappa

Bengaluru

Oct. 7: Unsurprisingly, even at 33, Stuart Clark needs a lesson or two on how bowl on the sub-continent’s wickets. Having blossomed late in his cricketing career, the lanky fast bowler has taken the advice of his guru Glenn McGrath before flying to India.

Clark realises this is not Australia, where his 1.97m height could be used to his advantage to extract that extra bounce. Instead, the New South Wales man will have to bend his back to get response from the sleeping tracks in India. And Clark is ready to shed a few kilos in doing that.

"You don’t get a lot of love back from the wicket. You just got to be patient and bang it in there all day. It can be hard work, but you got to put all that aside. I think Michael Kasprowicz did it well.

"He got in there and bowled all day and we all know stories about how he lost eight kgs. But, I think that’s the secret to it. You just got to do it all day. And guys who have been successful here have done that. You cannot shirk the responsibility," said Clark on Tuesday, after a three-hour practice session.

Without a quality spinner in their ranks, the Aussies will rely heavily on Clark and his new ball partner Brett Lee. Clark said he understands the importance of the assignment.

"Lee has that shock value because he really does bowl fast. I’ll probably do the other sort of stuff where from one end I would try and build it up and get some wickets.

"I guess that would be our ploy no matter where we are playing. I just run in there and do the more consistent stuff and he’s the guy who would exploit that." Clark pointed out.

He said he is not targetting any particular Indian batsman: "I think we bowl without targets in mind. But what we are trying to do is not to focus on just one or couple of individuals. They (India) have some great players in their team and when you focus on one you tend to forget about the other ones."

However, with vice-captain Michael Clarke laid low by a stomach illness, Clark wasn’t sure what his team’s bowling options were. "I think we would probably be going with a normal attack, one spinner and a couple of guys who bowl part-time spin. I’m not sure which ones those would be at the moment," he said.