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At times like these I go to my happy place. The destruction of the Australia side in the UAE has forced me to cast my mind back to a time where we dealt the Pakistanis a true thumping.
In 2005 at the SCG, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill ripped through the tourists with 13 wickets between them.
Danish Kaneria provided the only thorn in the Aussie’s side as he took 8 of the 11 Australia wickets that fell.
Yet these days the pitch of the Sydney Cricket Ground offers a lot less by way of spin. Could this be an attributing factor to our travelling woes?
The SCG used to be Australia’s best spinning pitch. It was a great surface that had something for the batsmen for the first part of the match, but favoured the spinners come the final sessions. Cracks, dust and footmarks made it Warne’s favourite place in Oz to rip those leggies, and one of the few grounds where Australia used to sport two genuine spinners.
These days, however, the conditions seem to have taken a bit of a turn (pun most definitely intended).
In the last four Test matches played at the SCG, only 22 wickets have been chalked up to spinners (for those playing at home, less than 2 wickets per innings), 7 of which were nabbed by the touring Rangana Herath back in 2013. For what used to be the venue where the spinners prospered, this is slim pickings. The incumbent Nathan Lyon only has 6 scalps from three Tests at the venue.
One of Australia’s greatest challenges in their travels abroad is the lack of a spinner able to extract all that a wearing pitch has to offer. We do tend to be too quick and unfair to judge our spinners against the image of Warne, but at the bones of it, every nation’s top spinner is expected to do the ‘fourth innings job’.
As Nathan Lyon is no doubt placed in the crosshairs of media, selectors, and perhaps even teammates, Cricket Australia need to realise that we’ve severely underdone our spinners. There aren’t too many pitches that really have a lot to offer them.
Cricket Australia announced earlier this year that they were planning on importing Indian soil in order to replicate the conditions the Australians faced when they got belted four–zip. While it’s a compelling thought, it seems like a bit of overkill. There’s no need to get too fruity; we just need a nice turner.
Now I’m not a horticulturist. I know that roses are red, violets are blue, and that for some reason faeces help plants grow. I don’t understand the mechanics of cultivating a pitch, or the variations required at a base level to change a deck from a seamer to a spinner (besides the visible differences). Thankfully, I’m not the one in charge, and Cricket Australia need to look to develop exactly that at one venue, and what better than our cracking old SCG?
It’s an understandable evolution, the nations play to their strengths and cultivate wickets which are easier to produce in their country, at the same time making it challenging for touring nations. Cricket Australia may be concerned about offering a deck which hands the advantage to the touring side. That is the danger if we do.
On the other side, what are the risks if we don’t? Well we haven’t won a Test on the subcontinent since Galle in 2011. How long will it be until win we another?
Our return to the number one Test ranking this year was fleeting, and if we want to regain that fierce domination of the early 2000s, we need to develop wicket-taking spinners. So give them a pitch to call home.
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