“I’ve always known I hyperextend,” Kuhnemann said. “Once you’ve seen the slow motion camera you can see it, so it’s something I don’t try to do, it just happens.
“I watched the Ravi Ashwin podcast, he explained it quite well how it can cause an optical illusion. But I’ve always known how I bowl, and I knew exactly what I was doing.”
Kuhnemann’s 16 wickets at 17.18 in Sri Lanka were followed by a five-wicket haul in his final Sheffield Shield innings of the season for Tasmania, meaning he claimed a highly creditable 24 wickets at 34.20 in his first campaign for the Tigers. All that despite an unsightly dislocated thumb in the Big Bash League, which briefly threatened his Sri Lanka trip.
The move from Brisbane to Hobart was geared at getting more match bowling, after the Queensland selectors chose to prioritise Mitchell Swepson’s wrist spin for the Bulls. That left Kuhnemann as one of Australia’s most valued Test bowlers in south Asia, yet barely bowling in state games at home.
“I think my mind was made up halfway through last season when I wasn’t playing,” Kuhnemann said of the move.
“So I did go to them and say ‘do you see a future in me’, and they said ‘yes, but bide your time’. But I was 27 and there was a subcontinent tour coming up. So I was ready for a change.
Matt Kuhnemann (right) with Cooper Connolly in the victorious Australian rooms in Galle.Credit: Getty Images
“Tassie was the best option, I knew a few of the guys down there, we’ve had probably six of their players play for Gold Coast Dolphins, my club, in the T20 Max competition. I caught up with [Tasmania coach] Jeff Vaughan during the season last year for a beer and a chat and really love him as a person and a coach. So that’s how it came about.”
Kuhnemann also spoke warmly of his spin bowling mentor John Davison, who has also had a hand in the long and fruitful career of Nathan Lyon.
“No one knows my game better than him. He’s always someone I call and catch up with, and if I haven’t spoken to him in a while and there’s something wrong, he knows exactly what I’m talking about,” Kuhnemann said.
“I try to see him at least a few times a year – a couple of times in pre-season, and maybe a couple of times during the season – to check in and make sure everything is looking good. He sees things that I don’t necessarily see and feel.”
Kuhnemann’s next assignment for Australia is likely to be the three-Test series in the West Indies in June and July.
“When you’ve got Steve Smith at first slip, he’s reading the game as it unfolds and watching how I’m bowling,” Kuhnemann said. “If he sees something like my pace or thinks I need to go a bit squarer or bowl with more overspin, he’ll come and tell me.
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“I’d like to say it was all me, but it definitely wasn’t. Even messages from Dan Vettori, he’d run out messages just making sure my pace was what it should be for that time of the game.
“I have so many great people around in that set-up to help me take wickets.”
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