- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
“Two things happen whenever we play with four fast bowlers: one, the captain gets banned, and two, we lose.” These were the words of Indian captain MS Dhoni justifying his team’s decision to stick with their spin bowlers in New Zealand last year.
Dhoni’s brutally pragmatic assessment of his side’s selection probably didn’t do a lot for his pace bowlers’ confidence, but there is certainly truth to his words.
Filling a side’s bowling options with pace is detrimental to any team in any conditions, primarily for the first reason Dhoni states.
In a Test match the minimum overs required in a day is 90. As ex-players enjoy reminding us, in years gone by teams used to achieve much more than this, even when overs consisted of eight balls instead of six. Yet the reality is that today, with the usual combination of pace and spin, it is often a struggle for teams to reach the minimum.
With no frontline spinner it is almost an impossibility.
While the ICC’s punishment – banning the side’s captain for a game when over rate requirements are not met – may seem harsh, it certainly serves its purpose. Teams can’t afford to fall behind the over rate.
Simply put, the ICC’s restrictions make having a spinner a necessity for all sides. This may not be an issue in the subcontinent, where some pitches offer precious little for pace, but in nations such as Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand, spin simply isn’t as profitable as pace.
Spin is a specialist role, not dissimilar to wicketkeeping. With wicketkeepers however, we offer leniency; we don’t expect them to average as much as the other batsmen, though it’s nice if they do. But so often with spinners we set standards similar to those of the other bowlers.
If the countries mentioned previously simply selected bowlers on their international and first-class averages, we would seldom see a spinner in the side. Nathan Lyon, for example, averages 37.89 with the ball in first-class. There are many pace bowlers in the country with superior averages, yet some can’t even get in their state side.
This doesn’t show that Lyon is a bad bowler, nor does it show that he is undeserving of a spot in the Australian side – he has more international wickets than any other finger spinner in Australia’s history. It simply reveals that in Australian conditions it is unrealistic to expect spinners to do the same job as the other bowlers.
In the same sense that there is a handful of keeper-batsmen who could have warranted a place in their national team simply for their batting prowess, there are some spinners whose bowling figures stack up favourably compared to their pace bowling counterparts. Shane Warne is the obvious pick, though others like Graeme Swann and Stuart MacGill also deserve mention.
Perhaps the aforementioned players are part of the reason we place such demanding expectations on our spinners. But the fact that in recent years there have been so few spinners that have been able achieve what would be considered a good average for a pace bowler is telling.
The issue stretches beyond public perception, it also seems to affect selection. How many spinners did the Australian selectors go through in the post-Warne and MacGill years, hoping for a miracle spinner, someone who could tie down an end yet also bowl the team to victory? It never felt like the selectors were happy to settle for whoever they felt was the nation’s best spinner, they wanted to fill a Warne-sized void and discarded anyone who failed to meet their lofty expectations.
The mindset of the selectors has changed a bit. Ashton Agar’s selection roughly two years ago is the last time the selectors tried find a miracle spinner. But even with 12 wickets at 26 so far in the Ashes, on pitches that don’t do spin any great favours, Lyon is finding praise hard to come by.
The perception of a spin bowler’s role in the side is still skewed. When determining whether Lyon’s Test average of 34.07 is good or bad, the averages of the other bowlers in the Australian team is irrelevant. All that matters is whether or not he is the best of the spin options for Australia.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.