Australian cricketers past and present have blamed the absence of a specialist spinner for the team’s poor start to the World Twenty20.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle hammered Ricky Ponting’s team into submission with a brutal 88 off 50 deliveries on the way to a seven-wicket win over the Australians in their first match of the tournament on Saturday.

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell said Australian selectors had been “kidding themselves” that they could get away with using part-time spinners.

“After that onslaught from Chris Gayle early on, the ideal thing would’ve been once the six overs were out of the way to turn to spin, but they didn’t have any variety to go to and not a really good spinner to go to,” Chappell told BigPond Sports Weekend.

“They’ve been kidding themselves for a while with the attraction to part time spin, they did it in the Indian Test series and (chairman of selectors) Andrew Hilditch has spoken about how they can get away part-time spin, it’s rubbish.”

Australia has just one frontline spinner in their Twenty20 squad with Nathan Hauritz.

But the Queensland off-spinner did not play against the West Indies as Australia opted for an all-pace attack.

Test opener Simon Katich said the successful Twenty20 teams in the Indian Premier League had a wealth of quality spinning options.

“They’re crucial in those middle overs to shut the game down, take wickets and that’s where the breaks really get applied on your innings and we’re not doing that at the moment, we’re not playing Hauritz who’s been bowling well for us,” Katich said.

Batsman David Hussey admitted Australian backs were against the wall following the defeat to the West Indies.

But he believed his team could progress in the competition, as they did after a first-match defeat to Zimbabwe in 2007, when they went on to reach the semi-finals.

“We’ve got match-winners throughout the squad, so hopefully we can come through and go further in the tournament,” Hussey said.

“Unfortunately we hit Chris Gayle in tip top form and when he’s in that form he can do that to anyone.”

Hussey also said the Australian team had put the loss of all-rounder Andrew Symonds – sent home for drinking and other behavioural issues – behind them.

“We had a team meeting after it all happened and we put a line in the sand,” Hussey said.

© AAP 2012

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