'It will come when time is right' – Billy Stanlake prioritises white-ball pace over red-ball chances

Australia 'A' will play six matches in the series against South Africa 'A' and two domestic teams from India from August 17 – all in Vijayawada – and the 50-over games will be followed by two four-day matches against India 'A' in Visakhapatnam.

"Any time you get to go to the sub-continental conditions in India, it is always a great challenge and a good learning experience. Especially for guys who have been in and around the Test squad and for the white-ball guys to put their name forward for the summer," Stanlake said in Brisbane where Australia have assembled for a camp before their departure for the series.

"All the batters are working really hard to play spin and are talking to Graham Hick (head coach). For bowlers, we have some pretty good plans on how to bowl over there instead of bowling how we do over here in Australia."

Will the lengths be any different from what they bowl in Australia? Stanlake doesn't think so. "It’s probably going to be the line you bowl. You will have to be straighter over there. The length... our boys will still try to bowl at half length as we do in Australia but it is more so about bowling a little bit straight in those conditions," he said.

Having made his one-day international debut in January 2017, 23-year-old Stanlake has played only six games in the format so far owing to injuries at several stages of his nascent career. However, by his own admission, he is getting better at managing his own body, especially after having played full series in England and Zimbabwe in the last two months.

Seen as an out-and-out fast bowler, Stanlake has had most of his success in white-ball cricket – two first-class matches and seven wickets against 46 limited-overs games and 58 wickets – but feels that opportunities in red-ball cricket will come with time.

For now, though, his focus is on limited overs. "It’s been great to go back to playing some 50-over cricket which I haven’t done for a while," Stanlake said. "But again, it is about taking one step at a time. Hope that my body holds up and when the time is right, red-ball will come.

"For me I am getting to that point where I haven’t had any major setbacks in the last 18 months and started to play a little bit of cricket, so that’s the challenge of keeping the body in good nick and keeping it well-maintained and getting out on the park as well. So it is a learning experience, but I am getting better."

Revealing that the fastest he had been bowling at training is 153 kmph, Stanlake said he understood his body better and has learnt to keep injuries at bay.

"I think you just learn your body after you get a little bit older and you have done a bit more bowling. You start working on how to keep your body feeling good," Stanlake said when asked about his lessons from being out injured.

"So in the last 18 months or so I have learnt a bit more about how to keep my body feeling better than how it was a few years ago when I kept getting those injuries."

For this, he is ready to compromise on pace as well, as he believes it is not feasible to go all out with pace when you're playing five-day cricket. "I think in the long form you need to have different gears. I think you can’t do that (bowling fast) for five days," he said.

"So that’s probably what I am still learning as well is when to take a step back from training when you feel a bit sore, but in white-ball cricket I want to go flat out the whole time."