Having recovered from the ankle injury that kept him out of the two-match Test series against New Zealand, left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra is keenly looking forward to his first tour of Australia.
Nehra, who had a memorable World Cup earlier this year in South Africa where he picked 15 wickets, was off the field for more than six months when he underwent a surgery on his right ankle.
But the Delhi bowler says he has gone through a thorough rehabilitation course that has brought him back to peak fitness and is now ready for the series Down Under. At present, he is now playing in the Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai.
"The preparations have been smooth. There was a month long camp at the start of the season and I have been with the Test and one-day teams to get back into the groove," he said Nehra.
"The pitches there (in Australia) have more bounce than those in India. The length will be more important. You cannot bowl too short to the Australians, you have to keep the ball up."
Though the wickets in Australia are hard and bouncier, a bowler would have to double his efforts to get wickets, Nehra said. "One also has to have more patience because you cannot expect to get five wickets in five overs, which you may do here. You need to bowl 20 or more overs in a day to get those wickets.
"You have to use the tour matches to get into the right line and length. If you don't, it will be difficult on the whole tour," he said.
The 24-year-old said his responsibility would be greater in the absence of Javagal Srinath, who announced his retirement from international cricket last week. "Zaheer (Khan) and I will have to bowl both with the new ball and the old ball, 20 overs every day."
Nehra, who has taken 37 wickets from 13 Tests so far, felt it would be a challenging experience to bowl to the most formidable batting line-up in the world.
"Containing Australian batsmen will be a difficult task. They play positive cricket and taking wickets is the only way to stop them. If you take two wickets and allow batsmen like Hayden and Gilchrist to bat on, they would make more than 300 runs in a day."
He would not be swayed by his performance against Australia in the TVS Cup tri-series when he conceded 80 runs and went wicketless. "I did not go into the match to take wickets. Basically I was there to get into a rhythm and get match fit.
"A first-class match would have been ideal preparation and bowling to a team like Australia was a bit difficult. But I have been playing one-day cricket for two years now, so I can handle such setbacks."
