Having recovered from the ankleinjury that kept him out of the two-match Test series against New Zealand, left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra is keenly lookingforward to his first tour of Australia.
Nehra, who had a memorable World Cup earlier this year inSouth Africa where he picked 15 wickets, was off the field formore than six months when he underwent a surgery on his right ankle.
But the Delhi bowler says he has gone through a thoroughrehabilitation course that has brought him back into peakfitness and is now ready for the series Down Under.
"The preparation has been smooth. There was a month longcamp at the start of the season, and I have been with the Testand one-day teams to get back into the groove," said Nehra,allaying fears about his ankle.
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The left arm bowler, who took a record equalling 6-23against England at Durban in the group stage of the World Cup,said 'length' was more important while bowling on Australianpitches.
"The pitches there have more bounce than those in India.The length will be more important. "You cannot bowl too short to the Australians, you haveto keep the ball up."
Though the wickets in Australia were hard and bouncier, abowler would have to double his efforts to get wickets, Nehrasaid.
"One also has to have more patience because you cannotexpect to get five wickets in five overs which you may dohere. You need to bowl 20 or more overs in a day to get those wickets.
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"You have to use the tour matches to set into the rightline and length. If you don't, it will be difficult on thewhole tour," Nehra said.
The 24-year old said his responsibility would be more inthe absence of Javagal Srinath, who announced his retirementfrom international cricket last week.
"Myself and Zaheer (Khan) will have to take theresponsibility in the absence of Srinath. We will have to bowlboth the new ball and 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 mostformidable batting line-up in the world.
"Containing the Australian batsmen will be a difficult task.They play positive cricket and taking wickets is the only wayto stop them.
"If you take two wickets and allow batsmen like Haydenand Gilchrist to bat on, they would make more than 300 runs ina day."
PTI
