Short, who is in Australia’s 15-man squad as cover for Shaun Marsh, has been bowling a fair bit. In the BBL, his 637 runs came alongside 10 wickets for Hobart Hurricanes. In all, Short bowled 37 overs in 10 matches – a handy contribution for a top-order batsman.

“If I can give two or three overs, or even four or five in one-day cricket, then it’s always going to help my selection in the end, and hopefully, it goes in my favour,” Short said, after Australia’s training session on Thursday, 21 February, in Hyderabad.

Short has been actively working with S Sriram, Australia’s spin bowling coach. The process began in August-September last year, when Short visited India with the Australia A team. “Just keep things simple and keep momentum going forward and energy going through the crease,” Short said on what he has learned from Sriram. “I’ve been working on them, and hopefully it pays off in the middle.”

For Sriram, his primary focus was on correcting Short’s bowling technique, and getting him to hit a consistent length. “We’ve seen in the Big Bash – he’s bowled a lot more than in previous years, which I think is a very good sign,” Sriram said.

“He’s come a long way. One of the main things we talked about was aligning his technique, and then consistency of length.

“In international cricket, it goes without saying – consistency of length is very, very important. If he can do that and spin the ball both ways, which he does when he’s bowling at his best, I think he offers a lot to the team along with his batting.”

As for his approach to batting against spin in T20 cricket, Short, a typical modern T20 batsman, who brings an uncomplicated approach to batting, kept it simple. “Just try and hit the bad balls when they come and try and score off every ball, even if it’s a good ball,” he said. “I’ll look to do that and see how it goes.”