India no more a spinners haven: Geoff Lawson

Melbourne: Pakistan coach and former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson has said Indian wickets are no more spinner friendly as they used to be in the past, and has warned the touring Australians not to be overly concerned at the prospect of facing Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh on dustbowls.

Agency reports quoted Lawson as saying, "The first Test at Bangalore we played there last December and it was a seam bowling-friendly wicket and it was bouncing and grassy.

"Having watched the India-Sri Lanka series, Harbhajan and Kumble were very ineffective and I just think they may have lost it a bit.

"I don't think this series will be dominated by spin bowling as much as people think but I think it will be a really good, close series.

"I think that seam bowling will be more important - Ishant Sharma and these types of guys are bowling very well and the Australian seam bowling is pretty useful. I think it will be dominated by them." 

"I don't think they are going to come across the low, slow spinning wickets which Australia have traditionally come across," he added.

"World cricket seems to have this tendency towards much better batting wickets and even in India the pitches have got harder and don't tend to spin as much," Lawson said.

Lawson was the coach of the Pakistan team which toured India last year and lost the three-Test series 0-1.

Australia will be playing Test matches at Bangalore, Mohali, Delhi and Nagpur. While Mohali and Nagpur have historically aided the faster bowlers, Delhi has been a spinners paradise over the years, and Bangalore has been a good batting surface.