Michael Hussey calls on Oz cricketers to banish their spin demons

Retired Test batsman Michael Hussey has said after looking at the struggles of the Brisbane Heat batsmen against top-quality Indian spinners that Australia not only has a problem with producing international standard spinners, but has one in facing them as well.

According to News.com.au, the two Chennai spinners who made the Heat middle-order look silly in Ranchi were the same men who destroyed Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Test series in India earlier this year.

Ravindra Jadeja (2-18 off four overs) and Ravi Ashwin (1-10 off four overs) slowed the Heat run-rate to a crawl in Ranchi and it took some Ben Cutting (42 off 25 balls) slogging off the fast bowlers to hoist the Heat to 7-137, the report said.

It was never going to be enough and Chennai's super-charged batting lineup raced to the target with Mike Hussey leading the way with an unbeaten 57 (48 balls), the report added.

That was three successive Champions League losses in a row for the Heat and most of their top and middle-order batting has simply been nowhere near good enough against international-class opposition, the report further said.

Hussey said that playing against spin was certainly an area the Australian batsmen needed to get better at, and the existence of pitches that helped seam certainly had not helped the spinners' cause.