- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Fawad Ahmed has not earned his Australian cap. In seven 50-over matches for Australia and Australia A during the past five weeks, Ahmed has taken just four wickets at an average of 92.
When the Victorian was picked as the sole specialist spinner in the ODI squad for the T20 and ODI portion of Australia’s Ashes tour, chairman of selectors John Inverarity claimed the leg spinner’s form justified his inclusion:
“Fawad has been a consistent wicket-taker on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa,” Inverarity said.
“He is a mature and very good leg-spin bowler and the NSP [national selection panel] is keen to see how he fares in international competition.”
A consistent wicket-taker? Ahmed was handed his Australian cap on the strength of taking 2-274 for in the 50-over matches on that tour of Africa.
Some cricket followers have suggested the former Pakistani’s rapid ascension may be due to cynical motivations by Cricket Australia to appeal to untapped segments of the country’s ethnically-diverse population.
I cannot be sure that is incorrect. But it is likely the selectors were seduced more by his trade than his Asian heritage.
Successive selection panels have been desperate to unearth a fresh leg spinner ever since the retirement of Shane Warne, arguably the greatest bowler in cricket history.
This fascination with leggies has prompted desperate selections, such as casting part timers Cameron White and Steve Smith as frontline Test spinners.
It should be said Ahmed is just the latest in a long line of Aussie players who have not earned their Test or ODI caps in recent years.
But if anyone was to replace incumbent spinner Xavier Doherty it should have been Nathan Lyon, who has been starved of opportunities in ODIs.
No doubt some will claim using Lyon in limited overs cricket will teach him bad habits, given many limited overs spinners are tempted to bowl darts in an effort to be economical.
However, I would argue exposure to aggressive batting would probably enhance Lyon’s Test capabilities.
The best players of spin in all formats typically attack tweakers from the get-go and do not allow them to settle into their spells.
Lyon’s captain, Michael Clarke, is a prime example, frequently skipping down the wicket to slap slow bowlers through or over the infield.
Lyon’s lowest ebb as a Test player came at Chennai in February, when Indian captain MS Dhoni vaporised the offie en route to pillaging 224 from just 265 balls.
Dhoni was brutal in his assault on Lyon, reaping 104 runs from 85 balls against the Aussie.
In the face of this ceaseless belligerence, Lyon had no answers.
Granted, Dhoni in such rollicking touch would mete out similar punishment to almost any spinner on the planet.
But what struck me most about his one-sided battle with Lyon was that the South Australian appeared shocked by the onslaught.
It was clear he had not often encountered such unrelenting aggression.
That is not surprising, considering he has bowled just 156 overs in List A cricket, only one tenth of the number he has delivered at first class level.
In ODI cricket, Lyon would constantly confront the challenge of trying to master a marauding, skilful batsman, whether it be Dhoni, Chris Gayle, AB De Villiers, Kevin Pietersen or Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Michael Clarke is a bold captain who would be very unlikely to instruct Lyon to bowl defensively at ODI level.
Instead Clarke, whose chief captaincy mentor appears to be Shane Warne, would encourage Lyon to flight the ball and challenge the batsmen to take him on.
Saeed Ajmal and Graeme Swann are Test cricket’s two best spinners by a considerable margin.
Yet both are fixtures of their country’s ODI teams and have flourished in the format not by spearing the ball in at the batsman but by deceiving them through the air.
The three greatest ODI spinners in history – Muttiah Muralitharan, Warne and Saqlain Mushtaq – all successfully utilised similarly attacking approaches.
Lyon’s encouraging efforts at Test level, more so than his modest List A record of 20 wickets at 35, have earned him a crack at ODI cricket.
Under the leadership of Clarke, such exposure should only make him a more rounded and effective Test bowler.
Lyon also appears better equipped than any other Aussie spinner to prosper in the 50-over format.
He certainly deserves an ODI spot far more than Ahmed.