BBL's opening bowlers in a spin

Last night, Michael Beer bowled the first over of the Sydney Thunder’s innings, with Ben Hilfenhaus following him with the second over.

They did the same thing in Beer’s last Test, in Dominica in 2012. The difference was that when they did it for the Melbourne Stars last night, no one raised an eyebrow.

A spinner opening the bowling in the BBL is normal. If your team is coming up against the Hobart Hurricanes, you can be confident that your team will bowl a spinner for the first over against Tim Paine. In Hobart’s first four matches, Johan Botha, Beer, Samuel Badree and Travis Head have all handed their cap to the umpire to start the innings.

In this season, a fast bowler has only sent down the first ball of the innings twice. On both occasions, the Perth Scorchers were involved, who have T20 international player David Willey to open the bowling. The Adelaide Strikers’ Michael Neser and Sydney Thunder’s Clint McKay respectively were the opposition bowlers who started Perth’s innings.

Given the general effectiveness of spinners, captains have good reason to start with them. So far, a spinner has bowled the first over 18 times in the BBL, conceding only an average 5.83 runs per over. There is more margin for error than for a fast bowler, although there has been the odd quick start the match well, such as Stuart Broad against the Adelaide Strikers.

Romanticism must cede to pragmatism, otherwise BBL franchises will get punished. Yet two points should be made.

First, there hasn’t yet been any real overlap between this phenomenon and the Test game. It isn’t surprising, considering the difference in personnel and Test match conditions, but on occasion there is cause for T20 developments to seep into Test cricket.

Ravi Ashwin has normally looked to be the most effective Indian bowler to the top order in Australia, but has most often come on when Australia’s batsmen have already grabbed the ascendency. One exception to this rule was the second innings at the SCG in 2015, where the conditions dictated the move.

The other near exception was when Virender Sehwag was stand-in captain at Adelaide in 2012. Umesh Yadav was allowed only one over of rubbish before Sehwag turned to Ashwin in just the fourth over. The rate immediately slowed, as Zaheer Khan dismissed David Warner and then Ashwin removed Shaun Marsh. In his second spell, Ashwin sentenced Ed Cowan to an early lunch.

Secondly, I’m looking forward to when the wheel turns and the quicks more often bowl the first over. Call it the frustrated fast bowler in me, but I hope opening overs like Stuart Broad’s against the Strikers become the norm.

There’s nothing quite like a fast bowler running in for the first over of the match – when they deserve it, of course.