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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Raz
Guest
England played the same brand of cricket with the same 11 in that 2016 odi series vs India and lost 2-1 ,so no I don't think England can win comprehensively especially since India now have even better loi spinners in chahal and Yadav,compared to Ashwin and Jadeja ,who were good themselves too.
Brasstax
Guest
JimmyB if you read those 5 comments again properly you will realize that I am trying to put things in perspective... that is we are not as bad as we appear and nor are England as good. When you lose 7 out of 8 games in a row to the same opposition who uses the same tactic of pulverizing your one dimensional attack you start to believe they are unbeatable and you are hopeless. England's performance against a full strength Indian team will tell us if we actually are that bad or England is simply too good at the moment.
JayG
Guest
True, that savage. The conversations are getting quite salty - I must say i'm enjoying the show..
Savage
Roar Rookie
some good comedy going on here.
maverick
Roar Rookie
This is gold.
maverick
Roar Rookie
And how can you keep mentioning Khawaja in your every comment is beyond me.
BrainsTrust
Roar Rookie
Speaking on playing spin bowling Ronan I wanted to get your opinion on khawaja's latest ton in county. He got it on a spinning Swansea wicket which might be heartening nonetheless for national selectors with a two-Test series against Pakistan in the UAE coming up.. Of the 131 balls it took him to reach triple-figures, all but 10 were bowled by spinners and watching the highlights i can see a great combination of sweeps, reverse sweeps, using feet to get to the ball on a very spinning track. Just wanted to get your view on this as it looks like khawaja has been doing some hard work behind the scenes to make some serious strides here.
English twizz
Guest
We will see England play India next month at Trent bridge in a ODI
Rats
Guest
While I agree India is a good odi team, no way they can stop England from beating them 3-0... Fearless brand of cricket England batsmen are playing will catch the Indians off-guard.. England clear favourites..
JimmyB
Guest
Brasstax, you have indeed repeated your straw man argument ad nauseum about England not being as good as India at ODI cricket, it was bizarre the first time I read it and it’s just as weird the fifth time that I’ve read it, considering that this is an Eng vs Aus series...how about you give England some credit and lament Australia’s failings?!
BrainsTrust
Roar Rookie
Khawaja in terrific form getting another ton for Glamorgan
Just sayin Stephen is Ross
Guest
Maaate, you forgot to mention that Uzzie is the best captain/ opener/ keeper/ ball boy/ Prime Minister/ Uber driver/ fisherman/full forward/ hooker/ street walker/ RnT masseur/ bbbj exponent that you've ever had the pleasure of being pleasured by - and that would have given your comment some credibility at least.
Stephen
Guest
Don't know what the hec is going on here, but on a positive note khawaja hits another century in county, thats 2 centuries in 2 games, wow. And how we don't have him in the ODI squad is beyond me
Just sayin Stephen is Ross
Guest
Sheesh, give it a rest pal. To everyone except Kawaja's mum (or Uzman himself) it's obvious you are posting the same bs under different names (many more than Ronan is pointing out). You even make the same grammatical and spelling errors FFS. BTW I'm not Ronan...??????⚾⚽???????
Stephen
Guest
So overall outcome Ronan, take Paine out and guess who is the ODI captain, finch lol, you get what you wanted. Paine is our best keeper right now and we need his leadership and experience at a time when smith and warner are missing, aside from one drop his keeping has been fantastic and all batsman with the exception of shaun marsh have struggled this tour, so why pick on paine alone
Bas
Guest
Hi Brasstax, people associate spin bowling with india as a given. But let me tell you know. Jasprit bhumra is the best fast bowler in t20 and odis you can check the ratings if you want. Bhuvi kumar is not far behind. He is been the best bowler in ipl from last few seasons. Be at start or death overs they are the architects of many of wins in last two years.i am happy to be proven wrong by anyone who can find better bowling side who can be compare with bhumra, bhuvi, chahal and yadav.
Philby Kim
Guest
Thanks for the comprehensive reply, Ronan. I would love to see some of the players you mentioned taking the initiative and disappearing into the Mumbai haze and then reappearing three months later as a sweeping guru a la Matty Hayden. Gee I even think there are two or three top players who seem to have a bit of time on their hands whom this could benefit greatly.
Brasstax
Guest
Their is no love affair pompous Pom. I am just calling them as I see them. I cannot remember when was the last time the poms beat the Indians in a bilateral ODI series. Even during the course of their great revival over the past 2 years they have been comprehensively beaten in 2 bilateral ODI series, one played in England and one in India. The likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal will not serve up pies and it is a fact that India has the best record chasing of any team over the past several years and their current side boasts of two of the best ever in Kohli and Dhoni. Let me rephrase this way - the Poms will have to play out of their skins to win the ODI series against India.
I no
Guest
And finch has a Sr of 152 for Australia for years so what are you getting at it doesn't mean nothing in Odis Khawaja is slow.
BurgyGreen
Guest
Personally I'd love to see Ben McDermott take the gloves for Tassie in the JLT and for the Hurricanes, though I highly doubt he's anywhere near the selectors' radar. I think he'd be a really useful 7 in the ODI side, because he's a genuine middle-order finisher. Bancroft or Handscomb would be much better than Carey or Paine, but they're still ideally top 4 players.