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Zampa and Ahmed in line for Test debuts in Sri Lanka

28th July, 2016
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Fawad Ahmed bowling for Victoria. (AAP Image/David Crosling)
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28th July, 2016
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Leg spinners Adam Zampa and Fawad Ahmed look to be competing to make their Test debuts against Sri Lanka next week after Steve O’Keefe suffered a hamstring injury yesterday.

O’Keefe had bowled beautifully in the first Test, with figures of 3-74, before he pulled up in his follow through during the 49th over and went off the field for the rest of the day.

It was confirmed as a right hamstring injury, according to cricket.com.au

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Given how tricky hamstring injuries tend to be, it is difficult to see him playing in the second Test which starts in six days’ time in Galle. The Galle pitch is known to assist spinners and in the last Test at the ground Sri Lankan tweaker Rangana Herath took ten wickets as his side beat the West Indies by an innings.

So it seems likely Australia will want to field two specialist spinners, meaning they would need to fly in a replacement for O’Keefe. Zampa and Ahmed would seem to be the leading candidates.

If Australia wanted a like-for-like replacement then their only option would be 29-year-old Victorian John Holland.

Holland played only two matches last Sheffield Shield season, both at the end of the campaign, but he was very impressive, taking 14 wickets at 20. He has struggled to get regular appearances for Victoria in recent seasons partly because of injury and partly because of the presence of Ahmed.

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Ahmed was the leading wicket taker among spinners in the Sheffield Shield last season, with 27 wickets at an average of 33. Across the past three Shield seasons he has snared 96 wickets at 29. Ahmed was picked ahead of O’Keefe for Australia’s Test tour of the Caribbean last year but has since fallen back in the pecking order.

Two things counts against Ahmed – firstly that he is 34 years old and secondly that he has not played a match in four months. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Zampa has been playing non-stop in that same period, moving from the T20 World Cup to the IPL, to the ODI tri-series in the Caribbean, and on the Caribbean Premier League.

Media reports in May suggested Zampa was very close to making the original Test squad for this tour of Sri Lanka, so it would be no surprise were he to be flown in as cover for O’Keefe.

Zampa took just ten wickets at 45 from five Shield games last summer and has a wretched first class record of 53 wickets at 51. He has, however, been in dazzling touch with the white ball, taking 24 wickets at an average of 13 across his last 13 matches in the IPL and CPL.

Crucially, Zampa also has had the advantage of being under the nose of the national selectors in recent months, having cemented himself as Australia’s first choice spinner in both the ODI and T20 teams.

As much as his control and variation, it has been the unflappable nature and robust self-confidence Zampa has displayed which have made him so appealing. The young South Australian has appeared to be on the fast track to Test selection and O’Keefe’s injury may well have just provided the pathway.

But, as much as he has excited in limited overs cricket, there is no evidence yet that Zampa is suited to the longest format. In T20s and ODIs batsmen are obliged to attack Zampa, which is a difficult task due to his admirable control and clever variations.

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Test cricket, however, would place the onus on Zampa to make things happen. It poses an altogether different challenge and one which he is yet to overcome with any regularity in Shield cricket.

Ahmed, by comparison, has a proven track record of being a high quality red ball spinner in first class cricket. That might not be enough, though, to overcome the hype that has built around Zampa. Next week we may well get to see whether the young leggie has the chops for Test cricket.

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