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Trust in spinners will help them out of Warnie's shadow

15th November, 2011
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Shane Warne was one of two Australians selected in Wisden's all-time XI (AAP: Julian Smith)
Roar Guru
15th November, 2011
11
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Five years since the retirement of its greatest exponent, Australian captains have forgotten how to use spin bowling, and at times seem to forget it exists at all.

Australia have been through an extraordinary number of spinners since Warne’s retirement. Off the top of my head I can think of the following (not in order): Cameron White, Beau Casson, Nathan Hauritz, Michael Beer, Jason Krejza, Stuart MacGill, Xavier Doherty, Bryce McGain. (If you know of any I’ve missed by all means leave a comment below.)

But this fact shows that Australia’s selectors can’t quite get their act together when it comes to spin bowlers. None of them, Hauritz possibly excepted, has been given a fair amount of time to grow into the role. Instead, the search for a spinner has resembled speed dating, with the selectors moving on to the next in the queue (which itself appears arbitrarily assembled), when a bowler has failed to impress instantly.

It causes one to wonder what Shane Warne would have become had this frantic absence of logic been applied to his early career. His 1/150 against India may have been the beginning and the end. He may never have survived to take 3/0 to clean up Sri Lanka, or 7/52 against the West Indies and finally establish himself.

Spinners need to be given time, both in an individual match, and in a series of games. They need to develop confidence, build a place in the team and in the captain’s trust. None of this is being observed at present.

All the best spinners are attacking bowlers. Their different style and ability to perform so many variations make them natural wicket takers. Australia’s spin crisis began when they regressed to using the likes of Hauritz as merely a device to give the fast bowlers a rest or speed up the over rate.

Beau Casson is perhaps the most concerning case of spinner abuse in Australia’s recent history. A left arm chinaman bowler with plenty of enthusiasm, he was pulled out of the ether to bowl for Australia in the last test of the series in the West Indies in 2008.

He recovered from a first innings pasting to take three wickets in the second innings, showing plenty of character to go with his ability. And he was never seen again. By the 2008/2009 Australian summer, he was humiliated by being forced to withdraw from the bowling attack in a Shield game after completely losing control and delivering a series of beamers.

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He’s played only a small handful of Shield games in the last couple of years, and is now on the periphery of the New South Wales squad let alone that of Australia. Indeed it could be argued that playing test cricket was the worst thing ever to happen to his career.

Trouble is, nobody seems to have learnt anything. Watching the use of Nathan Lyon in Cape Town showed some worrying, familiar trends. As Australia’s pace bowlers struggled to have any thrust whatsoever on the third day, and the South African target grew nearer, Lyon was finally thrown the ball half an hour before lunch.

In the three overs he was permitted, he bowled with nice shape and flight, encouraging Hashim Amla to attack and beating him in flight more than once. But, having not got a wicket in his three overs, he was replaced by Ryan Harris.

Herein lies the trouble. Australia’s captains do not trust spin bowlers. They do not give them the ball at key moments. When they’re hit for a boundary, they almost instantly push the field back. If they don’t succeed almost instantly, they’re off. Spin bowlers are a risk, but they are a risk worth taking because of the variety they offer. At the moment, Australia seems to define ‘variety’ as having a left arm fast bowler in the side.

Nathan Lyon has clearly got plenty of ability, but needs to be given time to settle and bowl some long spells. Spinners need the patience and trust of their captain, but if Lyon doesn’t get it, he’ll soon be thrown onto the list of Test discards.

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