Rocchiccioli reveals call with Harmer for advice on offspin

He is yet to play Tests and has not been included in any squads with left-arm orthodox Matthew Kuhnemann and Victoria offspinner Todd Murphy preferred as, either, partners to Nathan Lyon, or replacements for him when he has been injured. But Australia's hierarchy have invited Rocchiccioli to work with former Australia bowling coach and New Zealand great Daniel Vettori in recent years and he is firmly in the frame to tour India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in January 2027.

"I got his phone number in the winter, and so I sort of reached out to have a chat, and yeah got plenty from it, which was quite nice," he said. [The main takeaway was] just how good you've got to be to play Test cricket.

"Basically, him and Gaz [Lyon] like that [in South Africa] was the best series that I've watched in a long time for spin bowling. [Keshav] Maharaj as well. So, yeah, I just wanted to get in touch and learn from the greats. And I feel like him, Gaz, and Maharaj are great to watch spin bowling."

Rocchiccioli added he implemented some of the advice while bowling to one of Australia's best players of spin in Peter Handscomb, who made a sublime unbeaten 131, on a day one MCG surface that did not offer a lot of assistance.

"Just probably changed my angles a little bit," Rocchiccioli said. "I'm still growing in that space, to be honest. I'm evolving. I was asking [Harmer] plenty about that sort of stuff and learning and growing in that space. So I'm actually really enjoying what's been presented in front of me at the moment, and trying my hardest to see what works and what plans stick. I felt like I tried plenty today, and I felt like it was probably one of my most consistent days for the summer."

"I felt like I performed better this time around compared to the year before because I had far more knowledge of what I was going to come across," Rocchiccioli said. "The humidity, just the different stuff that you experience over there, it's completely different to playing in Perth. So I felt like I adapted really well to the conditions. I thought me and Murph worked beautifully together."

He also learned about how to make the quick transition back to bowling in Australia.

"I think that's just the craft of offspin bowling," Rocchiccioli said. "That's mastery. That's what Gaz, that's what Harmer, that's what Maharaj do so well. The ability to bounce in between, and I think it actually just comes down to experience. I learned a lot doing it last year, and so I knew that coming back, I probably had to bowl a fair bit more in the lead up to the first couple of WACA games, and sort of probably understand that it might take me one or two games to get back to my pure top spinner, which I think I've actually brought back out today."

His WA coach Beau Casson, a former Test wristspinner, spoke during the pre-season about Rocchiccioli's improvement and his desire to master his craft.

"It's been pleasing to watch Corey in terms of the subtleties that he's added to his game," Casson told Cricinfo in July. "Year on year, he's adding layers to how he's improving his bowling.

"His height allows him to be a big short leg and leg slip wicket taker. And the really pleasing part of it is he's backed it up four years straight now, which has been wonderful to see.

"He won't leave anything to chance. He works incredibly hard. He loves the craft. Wants to talk about it 24/7, and he's keen to help the next generation of spinners coming through.

"He's got lofty goals. His goal is playing long form cricket as high as he possibly can, but break it down even further, he wants to try and master what he does."