Beams honing new weapon for Sri Lanka

Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars leg-spinner Kristen Beams is honing a new weapon she hopes will bring swags of success in Sri Lanka.

With a five-month break between international assignments and Australia's tour of Sri Lanka not beginning until mid-September, Beams has been using her preseason to work on her craft – and a new variation - both at home in Melbourne and at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane.

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The opportunity for an extended preseason at Cricket Australia's Brisbane headquarters, which boasts a unique hybrid wicket and a new red soil-based pitch that imitates subcontinental conditions, is particularly exciting for Beams.

"I think it's going to be great for me to spend a lot of time in Brisbane," Beams, who was part of the Southern Stars' spin camp at the NCC late last month, told cricket.com.au. "For me, this preseason is about working on the bowling side of things.

"I'm hoping to develop a variation over the preseason which will hopefully be very effective it given the opportunity in Sri Lanka.

"I'm working on my wrong-un, I'm trying to bowl that a little bit more and just increase my pace and the revs on the ball."

Even more exciting for the 31-year-old is the thought of a second trip to the subcontinent in the space of a year, after the Stars' fell at the final hurdle of the World T20 in India earlier this year.

"I love the subcontinent, it's a great place for spinners.

"So I'm hoping to have a really big preseason and fingers crossed I can make myself part of that team."

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The Southern Stars' 'slow bowlers' cartel' – Beams, left-armer Jess Jonassen and off-spinners Erin Osborne and Grace Harris - are all champing at the bit for a return to spin-friendly conditions, determined to make the most of lessons learned in India.

"We had a lot of discussion in India about bowling flatter and quicker through the air, while still being able to extract some bounce out of the wicket," Osborne told cricket.com.au.

"So that'll be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it.

"It's always nice going and playing on the subcontinent wickets as a spinner hopefully we'll be able to extract a bit more turn and take a few wickets."

Osborne said she had fully recovered from the split webbing injury she struggled with through the World T20 in India.

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With the Southern Stars lacking a power-hitter at the tournament, having lost Grace Harris to DVT just says before departing Australia, Osborne found herself in a new role, at one point pushed up the order to No.3 – an ill-fated experiment as Australia crashed to 3-9 against New Zealand – and called upon to push the run rate in the latter stages of the innings.

But while the results were mixed, the 27-year-old is eager to continue working on that aspect of her game.

"Absolutely," she said. "I think looking back on World Cup, all the talk had been about strike rates so I'm working on trying to upping that a little more.

"It gives me something else to focus on and I've got a coaches around willing to help."

Allrounder Harris, meanwhile, is typically to-the-point about the prospect of unleashing her off-spin on the Sri Lankan wickets.

"I've had success in Sri Lanka with my bowling," Harris told cricket.com.au in Brisbane last month.

"I think batting will definitely be challenging, the girls are different types of spinners with different actions and run ups, so we'll really have to watch ball hard when batting.

"But from a bowling point of view, I'm just going to try to cash in on the spinning wickets because that'll be awesome… for me."