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Chadd Sayers seemed destined never to play international cricket due to Australia’s pace obsession. Now the swing bowler is a realistic chance to make his Test debut next month in New Zealand.
Unlike Australian quicks Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Josh Hazlewood – who all were identified as national prospects while still in their teens – Sayers had to scrap his way into the Australian setup.
In fact, just graduating into state ranks was a graft for the medium pacer. It took him four consecutive top-three finishes in the Bradman Medal, awarded to the best player in Adelaide grade cricket, before he finally made his debut for the Redbacks, at age 23.
And he was 25 years old by the time he started getting a regular game for SA in the 2012-13 season. Apparently, Sayers’ lack of pace had long put off the SA selectors, just as it seems to have done with the Australian panel.
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That 2012-13 summer he showed the SA hierarchy how foolish they had been to doubt him, as he topped the Sheffield Shield wicket-taking list with 48 wickets at 18.
Over the past four summers, only Queensland stalwart James Hopes has taken more Shield wickets than Sayers. The South Australian has accumulated 145 first-class wickets at an average of 25. But it is his frugalness – he concedes a Glenn McGrath-like 2.62 runs per over – which sets him apart, and may help vault him into the Test side.
What makes Sayers’ career record all the more impressive is that, as a Redback, he is based on the flattest Shield pitch in the country at Adelaide Oval. Sayers has thrived on that batsman-friendly surface, taking 47 wickets at an average of 25 there in first-class cricket.
At the MCG, SCG, Gabba, WACA and Bellerive Oval, Sayers has taken 75 wickets at 23 in first-class cricket, underlining his ability to adapt to a range of conditions.
And he is the sort of bowler who is less suited to Australian pitches than those in New Zealand, which may well be similar to the seaming decks on which Australia floundered in England last year.
Accurate swing-and-seam merchants like Sayers have dominated England’s domestic scene decade after decade on such pitches. Australia found in the last Ashes that blast-them-out quicks Starc and Mitchell Johnson were not suited to those surfaces, on which accuracy, patience and guile are the key.
Those three attributes are the core of Sayers’ game. He does not seek to bowl magic deliveries which rattle stumps and leave batsmen confounded. Rather, he backs himself to outthink and outlast his opponents, settling in on a perfect line and length and using his mastery of swing and seam movement.
Short in stature and operating mostly in the 125-130km/h range, he has no intimidation factor. But in an Australian attack which boasts the express James Pattinson and the 196 centimetre Hazlewood, there is no need for it.
Sayers is a role player, the kind of steady operator who makes his bowling colleagues more effective by consistently building pressure on the batsmen with dot balls.
He has the reliability of Peter Siddle but can also swing it both ways with new and old ball – something Australia have not had since perhaps Damien Fleming in the 1990s.
After his shock call-up to the Test squad, Sayers told the media he had thought he was not the kind of bowler the Australian selectors were looking for.
“I was never going to bowl 140km/h, so if that was their (selectors) criteria I was never going to fit that,” Sayers said. “But obviously they’ve picked for New Zealand conditions with Jackson Bird getting selected as well – he’s the same sort of bowler as me.”
With Pattinson and Siddle currently battling fitness issues, there is an outside chance both Bird and Sayers could play in the first Test against the Kiwis in Wellington from February 12.
Combined with the economical Hazlewood, that would be the most precise and dependable pace attack Australia have fielded in years.
It also would be one tailor made for a seaming pitch, if that is what is served up in Wellington. More likely, Sayers and Bird will be competing for one spot in the Australian bowling unit.
Either man would be a good pick as Australia look to move away from their pace-first mantra and pursue a wiser, horses-for-courses selection policy.