Stoinis relishes batting under pressure

Not many things have gone in Australia's favour since it landed in India for the ongoing limited-overs series. Steven Smith's men have lost all three One-Day Internationals, gifting India an unassailable 3-0 lead ahead of the fourth encounter in Bangalore.

While many established players have failed to make an impact, Marcus Stoinis, the tall right-arm allrounder, has shown promising signs by doing a commendable job with both bat and ball. While this might be the first time Stoinis is playing an international game in India – he was part of the Test squad earlier in the year but didn’t feature in the XI - he has had a fair amount of experience of Indian conditions, having played 12 Indian Premier League matches last season. He was also part of the Australia A squad that toured this country in 2015.

Having lost the first ODI in Chennai by 26 runs by the DLS method, Australia did well to bowl out India for 252 in the second match. Chasing a relatively small total, Australia lost four wickets with 106 on the board when Stoinis, the 28-year-old from Victoria, joined Smith in the middle. The Australian skipper soon perished, but Stoinis fought a lone battle with an unbeaten 62. He couldn't prevent his side from going down by 50 runs but the manner in which he compiled that knock offered a glimpse of the potential he carries.

"I am enjoying the pressure," said Stoinis at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday (September 26). "I am enjoying the opportunities. The longer I stay, the more opportunities I will get. (I am) still a youngster in international cricket. That's where my head is at the moment. The pressure can definitely get you but the way I am going about things, I am enjoying the chance to be put under pressure and do something good for the team.

"I am still quite new to those kinds of situations, I am used to batting higher up the order in state cricket. The only plan is to try and win the game and that's the way I am going... I mean, not to look to win the game from the start but instead be there until the end and communicate with the partners. It's as simple as that."

The six fours and three sixes he hit during that Kolkata knock can be a little misleading because with Stoinis, it was not just about clearing the ropes. He was on 14 off 25 deliveries by the end of the 31st over before launching himself at the bowling. He then followed it up with a composed, unbeaten 28-ball 27 in the third ODI in Indore, taking his series tally to 92 runs at an equivalent average, having been dismissed just once.

Stoinis feels it's "unrealistic" for him to straightaway go after the bowling. He rather likes to follow a Test-match like approach in order to set himself up for the big hits in the last few overs.

"Yes, personally for me, but that might not be the case with everyone," he said. "It's one thing that I identified after the first game. It almost turned into to a Twenty20 for us and it was a bit unrealistic for me to go out there and hit the first couple of balls for a boundary. You don't know what the conditions are doing, you all can see it on the TV but it's completely different once you get out there. So I just want to get an understanding of the conditions. Sometimes it might take five balls, sometimes it takes 20 - not really putting a number on that."

Stoinis, who enjoys calling himself a batting allrounder, has been doing a bit of extra work with the ball too. The right-arm medium pacer has sent down 27 overs, picking up a couple of wickets at an economy rate of 5.96.

"I wasn't sure that I was going to bowl ten overs but I knew I would be bowling anywhere between six and ten," he revealed. "So that was in my head before coming here. I definitely love being involved in the game."

Being a batsman himself, Stoinis understands that it's pretty much impossible to not concede regular boundaries in these conditions, especially with players now feeding off the Twenty20 experience.

"I don't love bowling in these conditions, but that's the thing with IPL,'' Stoinis pointed out.

"You do get hit for a lot of boundaries and some of the players are unbelievable, they hit you out of the actual ground. If you expect that is not going to happen with you, that's not true. Twenty20 cricket has changed the dynamics of one-day cricket and bowlers try to keep coming back and they are okay with being hit for boundaries. You got to be ready to take a wicket next ball and that will win you more games.

"In one-day cricket, you have got to read the situation and the batsman. I pretty much think about what I would be doing in this situation - when would I not want to hit and when would I not like to take the risk - that's the way I am going about things."

Australia has had its moments in all three games thus far but has failed to capitalise on them. While it reduced India to 87 for 5 in the first match before leaking 281 at the end of 50 overs, it dismissed India for a very gettable 252 in the second ODI. In the third game, it was cruising along at 224 for 1 with more than 12 overs to go, but could only manage 69 off the last 74 balls.

"We are still a young group, there isn't a lot of experience," explained Stoinis. "If you are playing for your country, you don't need any motivation. The other positive that we have taken is that we had three opportunities to win each of those three games. That's what the good teams do, they take those opportunities but we are taking encouragement from being in India and playing in their conditions."

On a personal level, despite scoring a brilliant unbeaten 146 in New Zealand in just his second ODI, Stoinis failed to find a spot in Australia's playing XI at the ICC Champions Trophy. While the focus is still on the remaining two games, Stoinis didn't shy away from making his Ashes goals clear.

"Obviously, it’s pretty important to play the Ashes, but I am not thinking about that," he concluded. "We have got two games left in the series, and have the chance to get the momentum going before the start of the big summer. All the focus is on that."