Spin is the key to Australia's T20 future

Ronan, I certainly agree regarding showing faith in the bowlers they have picked. I thought it was crazy the way they'd picked Muirhead as their main spinner in a match and Bailey was so reluctant to use him until well into the second half of the innings. If you think he's the man to select as the spinner in that team, then trust that he's up to bowling in that match. It's not like the pace bowlers were keeping it so tight and such a lower risk of having a big over hit off them!

Spruce - you are right regarding that a bowler doesn't necessarily need to bowl all these fancy deliveries, but whether through a "doosra" or "carum ball" or "Jeff" or whatever people want to call these balls, or just through the way they vary the spin, pace, flight, angle etc, variety is crucial. To me, the two biggest things for a spin bowler are variation and accuracy. If you don't have these two things then it almost doesn't matter how smart you try to bowl, because you may be able to outsmart a batsman in your head, but you won't have the tools to do anything about it. The more "traditional" spinners who've had great success still have a lot of variation, and it's often in how they vary the flight, length, pace, using more side-spin or more over-spin to get some balls to more slide through while others dip, grip and turn, despite bowling largely the same ball. Often the best variations are the more subtle ones. The player doesn't get out to the ball that's completely different, but the one that looks exactly the same out of the hand but turns out to be just enough different to beat the bat or take the edge or simply cause the batsman to complete mistime the ball in the air to the fieldsman. But be it bowling a Doosra, or really good use of pace, flight, length, crease, revolutions, side-spin, over-spin etc, variation is still a huge key, especially in a T20 where you are less likely to get "natural variation" compared to tests, as much of that comes from the pitch wearing as the match goes on.

Spin might be the key but right now there is a lock on producing good spinners.

Chris Kettlewell: Wonderful words of wisdom in these chaotic times, Sir.

I see Herath seems to be doing ok. I don't think these guys have to spin it a lot unless you're a wrist spinner. Guys like Vettori rely totally on flight, speed variation and reading the batsman. That is enough. Keeping your economy rate under 7 is a good thing in T20.

I also believe Agar has a long way to go. But I'm talking specifically about cricket on the subcontinent. The records of wrist spinners has been pretty poor.

I agree with some of the comments above. I think the most important thing Australia needs to succeed is specialists…in the sub-continent, specialist spinners yes. But also specialist quicks in particular. I think a successful T20 team really needs five specialist bowlers. sometimes teams like Australia only play two proper quicks…..

Actually, I meant responses to the article. I would think that Lyon is going to be in the T20 team sooner rather than later.

That would be a massive bonus. Going to finish with a batting average of 45+

Hindsight is a wonderful toy to be playing with as shown by these articles. What is the point in taking spin bowlers who aren't any good? I'd say we need our batsmen playing in the Ranji trophy as much as we need our bowlers bowling in it.

The spin problem is not going to go away in a hurry. A Warne kind of a genius is a one in a life time find. Given that CA and Bcci are on very good terms my take is that CA should focus on short and medium term. In the short term see if BCCI can allow some of the spinners to play the early season for some of fhe state teams in the Ranji trophy. 2) Arrange frequent and longer A team matches and for the medium term get one or more of the old greats like Bedi or Venkat to the excellence centre for a couple of months and get U 15 or U 17 kids with apptitide to learn from these greats. India may not have fully benefited from Lillie'S MRF stint but the few fast bowlers that India has are mostly products of his inputs. Certainly worth a try. Who knows how Agar will develop after a stint under Bedi.

Yeah well I hope he can improve because he does give it a rip. Problem is he bowls at least 2 crap balls an over, and that's why Clarke doesn't even use him as a partnership breaker because he's scared he might go for 20 off 2 overs and undo all the pressure that the others bowlers had just built up. The problem is that he is now in the team as a batsman so he is not going to be practising his bowling as much as he was when he was playing more as a bowler. And when you look at his first class average of 55 when he was in the team as a bowler it's hard to see that he may improve sufficiently

Agar is a thoroughly overrated cricketer and his dipping of the toes in the deep end has destroyed him

The main issue is the selection of two wrist spinners on a sub-continental tour. If you look at successful spinners on the subcontinent they are all finger spinners. Looping wrist spin on slower, more abrasive surfaces doesn’t cut it, the ball sits up knee-height and is waiting to be hit. Bowlers like Ajmal, Herath, Ashwin, Jadeja and Mendis employ that faster, high-rev finger spin, that skids into the stumps looking for bowled’s and lbw’s, just as Babar did for Pakistan in the first match. Even leggies like Imran Tahir, Amit Mishra and Shahid Afridi bowl primarily with finger spin over the top of or through the fingers, not over the wrist like traditional wrist spinners. It also helps that these bowlers can spin the ball the other way. I would have like to have seen either Steve O’Keefe, Jon Holland or even Ashton Agar groomed for this role, all are left arm orthodox and put plenty on the ball. Surely CA could have there mates at the BCCI to get some bowling practice in India for them!

I think another problem for Aussie spinners, in T20, is that in Australia they are often slaughtered by the dearth of heavy hitting batsmen. This makes them unattractive to the IPL. If they were bowling on slow tracks, similar to what we invariably find on the sub-continent, they would hone their skills and be a different proposition over time. Unfortunately, they never get a chance because they can be relatively expensive on their home pitches. Conversely, Aussie batsmen are seen to bat well and can gain lucrative IPL contracts, where they get to improve their game on slow decks. But for the poor Oz spinners, it's Catch-22...