Steve O’Keefe was one of the main architects in handing India one of their only three Test losses on home soil in the last decade. The Australian spinner picked up 14 wickets on a rank-turner in Pune back in 2017.
O’Keefe has urged Australia to beat India at their own game, when they tour the subcontinental nation again in 2023. He has urged the inclusion of three spinners in the playing 11, a ploy which has reaped huge dividends for India on home turf.
O’Keefe bats for inclusion of Mitchell Swepson
"They've given him four Tests now, it's hard to judge a player on that amount of cricket," O'Keefe told cricket.com.au.
"In India, I am a believer that finger spin is such a weapon because … everyone thinks you bowl finger spin so it must be easy, (but) it can still be really hard to get that control,” he added.
O’Keefe sympathises with Aston Agar’s untimely injury
All-rounder and left-arm spinner Ashton Agar was ruled out of the Test series against Sri Lanka due to side strain. O’Keefe believes that the timing of the injury was really unfortunate.
"The timing is never good, but it was especially bad at that time. (But) you've just got to work on getting your body right to go for the next tour. Because if you get stuck in the headspace of, 'I wish I was there, this was my chance to play', it's really negative,” he added.
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