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Voges hopes for stay of execution

Sydney - On the back of an incredibly poor tour to Sri Lanka, Australia middle-order batsman, Adam Voges, is hoping that his previous form at home will allow him to hold on to his place in the Baggy Green squad.

Voges counts himself among a number of batsman in the Australian Test set up who found the spin-friendly conditions in Sri Lanka tough to handle registering scores of 47, 12, 8, 28, 22 and 1.

Voges will be well aware that at the age of 36 his career could be on thin ice if his form doesn't pick up in a hurry.

The batsman who still averages 72.75 in Test cricket will be hoping coach, Darren Lehmann, and the selectors, forgive him his Asian trespasses when the Test series against South Africa gets underway at the WACA in November.

Voges said on EON Sports Radio: "The first home Test for the summer is here at the WACA and obviously conditions are fairly different to what we've just experienced,

"I take a lot of confidence out of what I was able to do last summer, and hopefully get that opportunity here in Perth at my home ground, somewhere that I've grown up playing and know the conditions really well.

"I've given the selectors the opportunity to leave me out if they wanted to, with how I've performed in Sri Lanka. Hopefully they keep the faith with me. I still think I've got plenty to offer.

"I take a lot of confidence out of what I was able to do last summer, and really the form and the run that I've had over the last couple of years, hopefully the last three Tests have just been a small blip on what's been a pretty good couple of years."

The 36-year-old confessed that Rangana Herath had Australia in a spin, the tweaker claimed 28 wickets in the series, dismissing Voges four times in six innings.

He continued: "We didn't have a lot of answers for him, to be honest,

"He has very subtle variations with his release points, his pace, where he stands on the wicket. But ultimately the ball seems to end up relatively in the same area. Some spin, some don't. And he's just very crafty. In conditions that suit him, like they did over there, he's certainly a handful."

After a number of discussions about being proactive, and handling the spinners better, Australia finally got two batsman to three figures in the first innings of the third Test when Shaun Marsh and Steve Smith knocked tons.

Voges lifted the lid on the discussions: "We spoke before that fourth innings and on a Galle wicket that was spinning quite a bit, the skipper and the coach asked the batting group to be a lot more proactive with the way we went about things,

"The reverse sweep was basically my version of it. I played one first ball, which was a little bit gutsy, but there was only one bloke on the off side and eight on the leg side.

"My thinking was that if I could get one away it would bring at least one of those guys back over and maybe I could find a couple of gaps on the leg side.

"It always looks bad when you get out playing that sort of shot, but at the time I thought it was the best way to try and combat them and score runs in those conditions ... If I had my time again I'd still play the shot - maybe a little more selectively and mix it up a little bit more than what I did."

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