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History repeated itself. After disrespecting the role of spin on Asian pitches in the last World T20, Australia again had a confounding reliance on pace in this tournament.
This poor understanding of spin shone through first in their squad selection and then in the negative on-field tactics of skipper Steve Smith.
Australia bowed out of the tournament with their loss to India on Sunday, a match in which the Aussies delivered just four overs of spin on a dry track tailor made for slow bowlers.
What was truly mystifying was Smith’s blatant lack of confidence in his young leg-spinner Adam Zampa, who starred in Australia’s previous two wins.
Smith has a long relationship with Zampa, having played together at New South Wales, and has stated publicly that he has a huge amount of belief in the 23-year-old wrist spinner.
He has contradicted these claims with his handling of Zampa. Twice in this tournament he inexplicably refused to bowl the leggie after he had started with bright spells.
Against New Zealand, Zampa came on to bowl with the Kiwis’ two best batsmen, Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill, on the charge at 0-58 after six overs. Allowing neither batsman any room, he completed a fine first over which stalled the Kiwis’ momentum and may well have helped to prompt a loose shot and the dismissal of Guptill the first ball of the next over.
Bizarrely, Zampa was not used again in that match, as the Australians bowled over after over of pace, only to lose that match by eight runs.
Smith’s use of Zampa was similarly baffling in the knockout match against India. Earlier, India’s two spinners who turn it away from the right handers, Ravi Jadeja and Yuvraj Singh, proved difficult to get away on the slow pitch, conceding just 6.5 runs per over. On a deck which had little to offer the quicks, Zampa looked like the key to Australia’s defence of their 160 total.
Remember that when India thrashed Australia 3-0 in the T20 series Down Under in January, fellow leggie Cameron Boyce was the only bowler to consistently challenge the touring batsmen, particularly superstar Virat Kohli.
The Australians already had blundered in overlooking Boyce for this tournament but surely would exploit Zampa’s wrist spin at Mohali? The youngster had to wait until the 11th over to get a bowl, with Smith opting to first employ the off spin of batting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.
When Zampa did finally get his chance he almost had Yuvraj stumped first ball after deceiving him with a wrong ‘un. Kohli tried to immediately attack Zampa but the Australian varied his flight beautifully, making it difficult for Kohli to get to the pitch of the ball.
In his first two overs, Zampa bowled five dot balls and held Kohli to just three runs from six deliveries faced. Bowling from wide on the crease and mixing up his pace and delivery points, Zampa kept Kohli guessing, something no other bowler managed for the night.
You would think that such a sterling first two overs would have given Smith great confidence, particularly after Zampa had grabbed 5-55 in his previous two matches. Yet Smith again dragged Zampa and would not use him when the match was at its hottest, leaving him to bowl just the two overs.
Across his 11 overs in the tournament, which cost just 6.27 runs per over, Zampa scarcely could have done more to make Smith believe in him. Then again the same could be said for Boyce, whose performances in international T20s were consistently excellent, only for him to be left out of the World T20 squad after being Australia’s standout bowler in the series loss to India.
In his seven T20s for Australia, Boyce snared eight wickets at 19, with the fantastic economy rate of 6.6. Effective wrist spinners are gold dust in T20, yet Australia decided to leave one at home.
The selectors argued that they couldn’t select two leggies in the squad, yet strangely saw no issue in selecting five right-arm seamers to play on spin-friendly Indian surfaces.
Not only did the Australians leave out Boyce, they overlooked him for a rookie finger spinner with zero success to his name in the T20 format in Ashton Agar.
The West Australian is a hugely gifted player but is yet to have any impact in the shortest format. Agar barely even bowled for the Perth Scorchers in the last Big Bash League, delivering just nine overs in eight games.
Such a player would need to be used cautiously then by Smith, you would have thought.
Not so, as the Aussie skipper sent Agar straight into the cauldron against the Kiwis, asking him to bowl to master blaster Guptill while the field was still up during the PowerPlay. One over and three big sixes later and Agar’s tournament as a bowler was effectively over.
It was a woeful strategy from Smith, who was exposed throughout the tournament for his faulty tactics with regards to the slow men. Combined with the selectors’ spin mistakes, it left Australia a step behind most of the competition during this World T20. What a sense of déjà vu.