Young Aussie spinner Davies hopes to make the most of his Chennai trip

Joel Davies is one of Australia’s promising spinners coming through the ranks and made his T20 International debut against Bangladesh in June.

The youngster made an impressive debut, striking with his second ball, and finished with excellent figures of three for 17 in Chattogram.

The 22-year-old left-arm tweaker is currently in Chennai with the Cricket Australia Developmental squad, training at the MRF Pace Foundation. It is his third trip to India, and the Sydney native feels his previous visits have helped him hit the ground running at the highest level.

“Yeah, [it helped] massively. I think the pitches didn’t spin as much as I was expecting when I was in Bangladesh. But if it was going to spin, I knew that I was equipped with the right resources to perform under different circumstances and conditions,” said Davies.

Growing up, Davies used to bowl left-arm medium pace before switching to spin in a bid to make his local team in the Green Shield under-16 tournament.

“My coach told me that I wasn’t going to get picked as a fast bowler, but they needed a left-arm spinner. So, I just sort of picked that up. And then another coach told me to stick with it because no one in my family is very tall and I wasn’t going to be a tall quick bowler. It’s turned out okay so far for me,” he explained.

On his role models, Davies said left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe is someone he looks up to, along with offie Nathan Lyon.

“Among international bowlers, I love watching Axar Patel. The way he bowls in T20 cricket with subtle changes, he’s very skilful. I think if I can replicate him at any point, that’s going to help me benefit, [considering] just how successful he’s been.”

Davies reckoned he was mainly focusing on getting the right shape on the deliveries during this trip.

“You can use a bit more side spin here. But still just trying to be able to manage side spin and over spin, and working on different arm positions and using the crease a little bit more. With batting, I think it’s a lot to do with sweeping for me. I’m not a massive sweeper. If I can take a few little things back home with me, then yeah, I’ll have had a successful trip,” added Davies.