You can count the number of good leg spinners through the history of cricket with your hand, that’s how difficult they are to come by.
Following Shane Warne’s retirement, Australia struggled to find a good spinner for almost decade, but have now unearthed Adam Zampa, who is extremely skilled and has had a good start to his ODI career.
I am not for a minute comparing Zampa to Warne, but the youngster has all the making of a good spinner, yet Steven Smith though has been reluctant to play Zampa in the XI and even when he does, the skipper is reluctant to bowl him.
The game against Bangladesh was a great example: Zampa was introduced only after 34 overs and only bowled four in total. Travis Head, on the other hand, as a part-time spinner bowled eight overs and Glenn Maxwell bowled one.
It is really perplexing the way Smith handles an attacking bowling option. His justification of holding back Zampa because two lefties batting doesn’t fly, as you either trust your spinner or you don’t.
Leg spinners are attacking and, yes, they are more likely to go for a few runs compared to an offie, but they are match winners too. In his short career, Zampa has 36 wickets from just 23 games at a good average of 28.
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When we look back at the history of non-subcontinental teams, except for Australia, none had an attacking spinner in the 1990s. South Africa, New Zealand and England played their spinners as run-saving options. A captain’s faith and confidence is huge for a spinner. The fact that none of the above teams had a wicket-taking spinner dictated the way they handled their bowlers. Spin was used as a defensive option with spread-out fields. Australia, on the other hand, had Warne, who was an attacking spinner and a genuine wicket taker.
South Africa now understand the importance of a spinner. Imran Tahir is arguably the best limited-overs spinner in the world and he has been solely responsible for the change in mindset of team management. The Proteas captains are now not reluctant to include spinners as an attacking option and having two spinners in the South African squad is something we could not have imagined ten years ago.
England also were lucky to find Graeme Swann, who was brilliant for them in all formats and was largely used as an attacking option in shorter formats.
Spinners, especially when they are starting out, need the confidence of the captain and team management. Zampa is extremely talented and Smith will need to have some faith in the youngster.
Smith captains Nathan Lyon in Test cricket and uses him as an attacking option, so it is not that he does not know how to handle spin bowlers. He probably does not have the confidence on Zampa yet, which can be detrimental so early in a career.
Just as India struggled to understand fast bowling for a long time, and lost out on very good talents along the way, Australia would not want to miss out on the spin talent they have in hand.
Good leg spinners are hard to come by – when you have one, you need to nurture the talent at your disposal. Adam Zampa has all the skills to become one of the leading spinners in the world and the only thing he possibly needs right now is an understanding captain.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Yup unexpected twists in the group. The next 2 game are virtual quarter finals. It will be interesting to see who makes the cut.
Savage
Roar Rookie
always knew that death overs batting against pakistan was fluke.as i said before the tournament,india would definitely not win this tournament due to their defensive batting.indian batsmen always looks in control but as always ends up 25-30 runs short.the worrying part for me they are happy with their batting and not making effort to score more runs.india-sl pitch was 360 run wicket but indian batsmen despite having good start ends up making only 320 runs.they are missing out of crucial 20-30 runs which would decide results against top teams like AUS,engand and SA.remember last t20 wc india-westindies semifinal where india lost. india made 190-3 on flattest pitch on planet(mumbai wankhede) where even england chased 230 runs against south africa on same pitch.
Savage
Roar Rookie
always knew that death overs batting against pakistan was fluke.as i said before the tournament,india would definitely not win this tournament due to their defensive batting.indian batsmen always looks in control but as always ends up 25-30 runs short.the worrying part for me they are happy with their batting and not making effort to score more runs.india-sl pitch was 360 run wicket but indian batsmen despite having good start ends up making only 320 runs.they are missing out of crucial 20-30 runs which would decide results against top teams like AUS,engand and SA.remember last t20 wc india-westindies semifinal where india lost,even their india made 190-3 on flattest pitch on planet(mumbai wankhede) where even england chased 230 runs against south africa on same pitch.
Savage
Roar Rookie
now suddenly group B is looking much tougher than group A.
DavSA
Guest
Indeed Felix . We now have a situation where the India vs SA and Sri Lank vs Pakistan games become mini finals . For a little tournament these countries have a combined population of 1.6 Billion people of which cricket is the primary sport in the Asian countries and a major and rapidly growing sport in SA. Also SA games get broadcast to a large audience in Africa. Can you imagine the viewership next week. The organizers will be pleased.
felix
Guest
Off topic again Sri Lanka just thrashed India,a very easy victory for the Sri Lankans. Turning out to be an interesting little tournament :-D
davSA
Guest
Some batsmen yes , but I have got to give credit to the Pakistanis . I am however in some confusion as to what's going on with AB de Villiers . Has had a total brain fade in the last 2 games. Can he be unsuited to captaincy ? There is an article on Cric Info that hints at a rift between him and FAF du Plessis who we know wants that captains armband. . I find this improbable . They grew up together as kids and were even in the same class in High School. ( How many schools in the world can boast 2 international cricket captains from the same classroom? ) ..Even the crowd certainly in the Sri Lanka game seemed disappointed when he went out .
James
Guest
That is more of an example of truly brilliant mindbogglingly fantastic captaincy though, Warne was a nobody and Gatting was quite good at dealing with spinners. If Smith had been the captain then no one would have said wtf mate about not bowling Warne to Gatting.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Pakistan spin attack is not what it used to be. I feel SA did not play Imad Wasim particularly well. He isn't a huge turner of the ball and basically bowls stump to stump. Shadab Khan has potential though. It was more of SA not playing the spinners well than the other way around. Pakistan spinners were effective as they were made out to be. Pakistan still has lots of issues with the side irrespective of yesterday's result. Their batting scored at snail pace in pursuit of a modest target. They might have ended up losing on DL if Malik did not inject some urgency in their batting. Their issues still persist. In terms of their fielding the pressure of playing SA is not the same as playing India.
davSA
Guest
This is slightly off topic but how effective were Pakistan's spin attack against the Proteas ? Although my side lost full credit to Pakistan.. Also the severe criticism they got for a pathetic fielding display against India seemed to work wonders . They were unrecognisable in the field this time around . World cricket needs a strong Pakistan side simply put there are too few top cricketing nations . The West Indies are off the radar and we are all poorer for it .
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
We may never know if using Zampa would have hastened the proceedings or not. Even though Head bowled a miserly spell, Tamim and Shakib had a partnership of 69 runs in about 14 overs before Head dismissed Shakib. Even though that spell of play was economical, it did not hasten the Bangladesh innings. Zampa was brought in in the 35th over when another partnership was developing between Shabbir and Tamim. Zampa got Shabbir out in his first over and mahmudullah out in his next. He bowled 4 overs and got two wickets and then Starc came later in the innings and cleaned up the rest. Lets give Smith the benefit of doubt this time and hope he uses Zampa more effectively against England.
Paul D
Roar Guru
If Smith was skipper against England in 1993 in the first test he'd have hidden Warne away from Gatting, kept Julian on for another spell and got Mark Waugh to send down some mediums
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Well Anyways, the game against England will give us the answer. I just hope that he uses the leggie much more against England.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"Is there a rule that only one spinner can bowl at a time?" The pace bowlers were all doing extremely well in tandem with Head so there was no need to change it up and go with two spinners at the same time. When things are working well you need to let them flow, not be worrying about who hasn't got a bowl yet. It seems you think Smith conspired to keep Zampa out of the attack when, as someone who watched the whole innings, it appeared to me to just be the way the innings unfolded which dictated that. I think you're reaching to try to make these circumstances fit into the broader narrative of Smith poorly handling spinners. And this is coming from someone who has heavily criticised Smith's use of spinners repeatedly in the past.
DavSA
Guest
Smith has copped it often enough in the past for not fully trusting in his spin attack and imo justifiably . But not in this game against Bangladesh . He was up against a ticking weather clock and the match situation demanded that he decide who could wrap the innings up most effectively . History now tells us he made the right call . Give him some credit I think.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
I understand the reason for bowling Travis Head first. I have seen this strategy with other teams as well when but what I haven't seen is the lead spinner not bowling for 35 overs. Shakib and Tamim batted for a long time and it was not until the 30th over did Australia finally break that partnership, is there a rule that only one spinner can bowl at a time? Why couldn't Smith mix it up with couple of overs from Zampa in the middle along with Head? In that way the pressure Head was putting on the batsman could have made them to take some chances against Zampa possibly resulting in a wicket. Bowling Travis Head was not the problem here, I understand the strategy but not bowling your premier spinner for 34 overs is bad captaincy. Even after the lefties were broken, Zampa still did not come on for 4 overs. So either Smith isn't confident of using Zampa or he just follows a set script and does not like to mix it up.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I've written many times criticising Smith's use of spin, but I don't think the Bangladesh game is a good example to use as a failure. I'll copy comments on made on this yesterday... Head was, quite clearly to me, brought on first because there were two left handers at the crease and he bowls much better to lefties than righties, while Zampa statistically is much more effective to righties in ODIs. Head is the most vulnerable 5th bowler Australia have had in years so Smith really seems to hunt for times when he feels he can sneak Head through a few overs with minimal damage when the threat from the batsmen is lowest. Then Smith kept Head on because he was doing really, really well – only 18 runs off 7 overs - and the Pakistan batsmen were playing him like he was Murali at his peak. Once Head had his first loose over he was dragged and Zampa was on almost straight away. The Zampa situation looks strange if you just look at the scorecard. But watching the innings live it didn’t seem like a bizarre strategy to me, Head just changed the order of things by bowling unexpectedly well.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
That is a problem, isn't it? Zampa needs to bowl a lot at the international level to get confidence to improve and develop. If he is in the team just to make up numbers, he is never going to get to the next level.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Sometimes you need to question the decisions a captain makes. If Smith wasn't confident of using Zampa against Bangladesh, how is he going to bowl him against England? It is good that Travis Head bowled well but that does not mean you ignore your primary spinner.
davros
Guest
ive never thought smith had a clue in how to use his spinners or how to show faith and boost their confidence