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Australia must attack spin in ODIs

22nd June, 2018
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Australia's Glenn Maxwell. (Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Expert
22nd June, 2018
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Australia’s struggles against spin in ODIs reached a peak as part-time tweaker Joe Root was allowed to wheel down 10 innocuous overs for just 44 runs in the fourth ODI in England on Thursday.

The lack of aggression shown towards Root was unfathomable on a flat Durham pitch on which England later zoomed to 4-314 in less than 45 overs.

To be fair to Aaron Finch (100), Shaun Marsh (101) and Travis Head (63), they were forced to play cautiously because of the extraordinarily-weak batting line-up the selectors assembled.

Australia had just four batsmen, followed by bowling all-rounder Ashton Agar at five, rookie wicketkeeper Alex Carey at six and struggling gloveman Tim Paine at seven. It was unquestionably the weakest ODI batting line-up I have ever seen Australia field, and this would have played on the minds of Finch, Marsh and Head.

It is an opposite situation for England’s top order who have the licence and confidence to take on the game and risk their wickets because their batting line-up is so tremendously deep.

Regardless, Australia’s woes against spin extend back far beyond this series. Since the last World Cup Australia are ranked seventh in the world for batting average against spin in ODIs. Australia’s batting average of 35 against spin in that time leaves them eons behind the world’s two best ODI teams England and India, who average 56 and 66 respectively against spin.

Averages versus spin since 2015 World Cup
India 66
England 56
Pakistan 42
New Zealand 40
South Africa 37
Sri Lanka 37
Australia 35
Bangladesh 33
Afghanistan 28
West Indies 26

England’s lead spinners have dominated this current series against Australia, with Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali combining to take 19 wickets at 20. What’s more is that pair, together with Root, have given up just 5.5 runs per over across the series, a very low economy rate in what has been an extremely high-scoring series.

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It was the same story as England beat Australia 4-1 after the Ashes in January, with Rashid, Moeen and Root again going at just 5.5 runs per over in that series. All too often the English spinners are allowed to cruise through their overs without being challenged by the Australian batsmen.

England's Moeen Ali lifted up by his team mates

While the Australians look to just knock spinners for ones and twos in ODIs, the English batsmen make a point of going after opposition tweakers. England are particularly aggressive against spinners either early in an over or early in a spell – a tactic designed to heap pressure on the bowler.

By contrast, rarely against Australia does an opposition spinner ever look under the pump. Only Glenn Maxwell, Australia’s most impactful player of spin bowling, intimidates slow bowlers with any regularity. It’s not as if all the Australian batsmen are incapable of successfully going after spinners – Maxwell, Finch, Shaun Marsh and Marcus Stoinis have all done it well at times in the past. Finch Marsh and Stoinis have all looked good on the all-too-rare occasions they have attacked spin in this series.

The issue is that, apart from Maxwell, the rest of the Australians too commonly prefer to take the cautious route against spin. New coach Justin Langer must instruct them to trust their ability to hit boundaries off the spinners. Come next year’s World Cup I expect every one of Australia’s opponents to stack up on slow bowlers and look to deliver at least 20 overs of spin to them in each match.

Glenn Maxwell Australia cricket

Australia’s Glenn Maxwell bats. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

This means that, if Australia continue to score at just 5.5 runs per over against spin, they will be gathering just 110 runs from these 20 overs. That would leave them needing to consistently blaze 240 off the 30 overs of pace they face in each match to make 350, the kind of total which will be required to win on the ultra-flat English decks expected for the World Cup.

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Australia vowed to become a more dynamic batting team after their outdated approach was exposed by England earlier this year. There has been no evidence of such a shift across the four games in this series. For Australia to truly become a more dangerous ODI batting unit they must start taking on the spinners.

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