Dump Doherty, pick Lyon and Agar

Ahead of the upcoming Champions Trophy tournament, the single biggest hole in Australia’s One Day International side is its lack of a consistent spinner.

Australia is yet to name their squad for the tournament starting in England in early June, but its first-choice spinner for the past two years, Xavier Doherty, does not deserve to be picked.

The last spinner to shine for the national ODI side, Brad Hogg, retired five years ago after bowling brilliantly during Australia’s victorious campaigns at both the 2003 and 2007 ODI World Cups.

Australia has since tried six tweakers in ODIs – Doherty, Nathan Hauritz, Steve Smith, Jason Krezja, Nathan Lyon and Glenn Maxwell.

Of those spinners, only Doherty has been given a decent string of games in the side. The Tasmanian started solidly but has floundered the past 12 months.

In his last 19 ODIs, he has taken just 17 wickets at an average of 40. His form at state level was even worse last summer, with two wickets at an average of 115 from five Ryobi Cup games.

Those are unacceptable figures for a spinner who turns 31 this year and has displayed no improvement, despite being shown unflinching faith by the selectors.

The two sides ranked above Australia in ODIs – India and England – possess spinners in Ravi Ashwin and Graeme Swann respectively who are capable of both taking bags of wickets and slowing the run rate.

The West Indies, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will also challenge strongly for the Champions Trophy and have the likes of Sunil Narine, Rangana Herath and Saeed Ajmal doing a similarly effective spin job for them.

Unlike these spinners, Doherty neither makes consistent breakthroughs nor stems the flow of runs. Given his form and age, what does Australia have to lose by choosing a younger spinner?

Nathan Lyon secured his Test debut two years ago partly off the back of eye-catching efforts for South Australia in limited overs contests.

At just 25 years old, Lyon is a baby in spinning terms and has years of improvement left. Exposing him to the rigours of ODIs could fast track his development and iron out some of his weaknesses.

Lyon has shown in Test cricket he can freeze when a player takes him on in the manner MS Dhoni did in the first Test in Chennai in February. The Indian skipper smashed Lyon for 104 runs from 85 balls in the first innings of the match as he caned a match-winning double century.

Lyon had no answer to Dhoni’s aggression and seemed clueless as to how to deal with a player who attacked him without restraint. The tweaker’s lack of exposure in limited overs cricket at state or international level means he has rarely been challenged to counter such batting belligerence.

Lyon bowls with better loop than Doherty and genuinely rips the ball, both of which are assets which have been displayed by many of the greatest ODI spinners in history such as Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Saqlain Mushtaq.

So far Lyon has been handed just two ODI caps, the last coming in the West Indies more than a year ago. He deserves an extended run in the side.

WA’s 19-year-old spinning all-rounder Ashton Agar should be Lyon’s understudy in the ODI setup. The Australian selectors clearly believe Agar is a player of immense talent, having taken him on the tour to India and selected him to partner Lyon on the upcoming Australia A tour to England.

So why not show complete faith in him by selecting him as support for Lyon in the Champions Trophy squad?

In his infantile career, Agar has shown the ability to swiftly acclimatise to a higher level of cricket. Picked from obscurity to make his first-class debut for Western Australia in November, he bowled with great control in taking 3-103 against NSW.

He followed that up with four wickets plus a match-winning 71 not out against Tasmania in his second Sheffield Shield match.

His five Shield games for WA last summer netted him 19 wickets at an average of 28 – making him the second highest wicket taker among spinners behind NSW’s Stephen O’Keefe.

In his two 50-over appearances for WA Agar displayed lovely flight and sharp turn as he snared five wickets at 18. Importantly, he showed no fear of being attacked by the batsmen and consistently looped the ball above their eyeline to entice them into playing aggressive shots.

O’Keefe, despite boasting easily the best first class figures of any Australian spinner over the past four years, is clearly on the nose with the Australian selectors.

He would be a strong option for Australia in any of the three formats, but particularly in T20 where his flatter trajectory would make him harder for batsmen to charge than Lyon or Agar.

If Australia are to once again become a dominant side in ODIs they simply must field a spin bowler who genuinely troubles opposition batsmen. Although Lyon and Agar still have work to do to become such a bowler, they at least have youth and potential on their side.

Doherty has been given an opportunity and has failed to grasp it. It is time to move on.