Pat Howard says Australia need time to overcome their problems against spin

Australia's inadequacies in playing spin in Asian conditions will take time and hard work to put right, according to Cricket Australia high performance chief Pat Howard.

Captain Michael Clarke admitted his team had not learned their lesson against spin after crashing to their sixth straight defeat on the sub-continent against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates on Monday.

Live International T20 Cricket

Pakistan won by 356 runs in the second Test in Abu Dhabi to take the two-match series 2-0.

Howard said moves were in place to rectify the problem, with spin pitches installed at CA's training facility in Brisbane.

He added that CA would continue to use external spin consultants, such as Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, and undertake developmental sub-continent tours that expose Test candidates to the foreign playing conditions at an early age.

Hard work

"All of those things will bring about improvement, but in no way are they an overnight solution," Howard said. "It will take time and hard work."

Australia have now lost 10 Tests out of their last 15 in Asia since 2008, winning just one against Sri Lanka and drawing the remaining four.

"To be a great side, we have to be able to win consistently on the road and it's clear that we still struggle to cope with dry sub-continental conditions," Howard said.

Your goal has to be to try and become better, I say that regularly but our performances here weren't any better than what they were in India.

"We're not looking for excuses for what happened, no one is blaming a coin toss or the pitches. Batting, bowling and fielding were well below par."

Before heading home from Abu Dhabi, Clarke said: "We have got to obviously talk about what's just happened, we were hopeful that we learnt some lessons from our trip to India, but it doesn't look that way.

"Your goal has to be to try and become better, I say that regularly but our performances here weren't any better than what they were in India.

"The best teams win away from home consistently, it just shows we've got a lot of work to do.

"That's a pretty accurate reflection of where we are as a team, we're much more comfortable playing in our own back yard."

Watch the T20 international between Australia and South Africa live on Sky Sports 2 on Wednesday from 8.30am