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“The basic thing about batting in Test cricket is patience. The basic thing is to stay steady in your strength, and not being in the position of another's strength. Belief in yourself is important,” he added. Top-order batsman Soumya Sarkar has been struggling in recent times. The Australian coach however, believes there is no chance of changing Soumya’s batting style.
“I do not see any problem with his (Soumya) technique. Not only him but also the other batmen in the team are also very good just like other batsmen of the world. Most of the time he plays with the middle bat. He can hit anywhere he likes. The matter is psychological, they have to believe that they are world-class. If they are confident of their abilities then Australia will have a great test in the upcoming series,” said O’Neill.“If you get a ball to hit then you will have to hit it. I do not want to change anyone's batting technique as a batting coach in any way. My job is to tell them what they can do consistently without taking too many risks and not to play bad shots,” explained the former first-class cricketer. One of O’Neil’s major work will be to work with tail-ender batsmen and improve their performance.
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The batting coach thinks tail-enders can produce valuable contributions for the team. “One of the issues of lower-order batsmen is that, as a bowler, they do not get enough time to bat. They even get rare opportunities to bat in practice. But both as a player and coach, I have seen many times that the team is winning when the lower order batsmen survive and contribute for the team,” he said.
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“To get something from them, you have to pay more attention to them, give more time and opportunity to bat in practice. They should be encouraged to play according to their own strengths and play a role of giving back the strike at the other end,” he added. Australia have named a strong squad for the Bangladesh series. The first Test will played in Dhaka from August 27-31 while second Test will be played in Chittagong from September 4-8.
