Australia are straight back into action today following their disastrous tour of England when they play Pakistan in Harare in the first match of their Twenty20 tri-series in Zimbabwe.
T20 is Pakistan’s best format – they are the number one ranked Twenty20 team in the world, and have long been at or near the top of these rankings.
So this tri-series should offer Australia both a major challenge, against Pakistan, and relative respite against the struggling Zimbabwe, who are ranked 12th in the world in the format.
Australia slid from second to third on those rankings after their loss to England in the one-off Twenty20 last week, but dominated in their last tri-series four months ago against England and New Zealand. Here is the key player to watch from each of Australia, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
Mitchell Swepson (Australia)
Australia’s attitude towards spinners seems to be softening in white ball cricket, with the Aussies playing two tweakers in each of their last three matches on the just-completed tour of England.
Leg spinners are now by far the most effective style of bowlers in Twenty20 cricket so Australia will be keen to identify their best wrist spin option two years out from the next World T20 tournament.
Quite incredibly, wrist spinners account for six of the world’s top seven ranked Twenty20 bowlers.
(Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Queensland leggie Mitchell Swepson has a gilded chance to lock down a spot during this series. He’s fortunate to have this opportunity having curiously pinched the position of fellow leggie Adam Zampa.
Zampa has been brilliant during his brief Twenty20 career, with 17 wickets at an average of 15 and a miserly economy rate of just six runs per over. Zampa’s omission is the single biggest selection blunder in this Australian squad.
Swepson is coming off the worst Big Bash League campaign of his career, having taken just five wickets at an average of 50 from his ten matches. But there’s no doubt he has considerable ability, particularly in T20s and first-class cricket.
Swepson bowled okay in the one-off match against England, with 2-37 from four overs, although both of his wickets were from rank half-trackers.
Shadab Khan (Pakistan)
Shadab is a freak. At just 19 years of age, the leg-spinning all-rounder already has adapted to both ODIs and T20Is with ease.
In ODIs he plays as more of a batting all-rounder and averages 51 with the bat and 28 with the ball from his 17 matches.
In T20Is, his skiddy leg spin has come to the fore, earning him a sensational record of 27 wickets at an average of 15 with a remarkably frugal economy rate of 6.19 runs per over.
Already Shadab is the number two ranked Twenty20 bowler in the world, behind only Rashid Khan. Australia’s weakness against spin was exposed once more on the tour of England when Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali toyed with their batting line-up.
Shadab is already as good a T20 bowler as Rashid, so that spells peril for Australia’s batsmen.
Like Khan and Rashid, Shadab has a fantastic googly, but he also has a better leg break than either of those bowlers.
Shadab also boasts a lovely slider – a delivery which looks like a leg break out of the hand but which skids on off the pitch, helping him secure plenty of bowled and LBW dismissals. The battle between Shadab and Glenn Maxwell, Australia’s best player of leg spin, should be a delight.
[latest_videos_strip category=”cricket” name=”Cricket”]
Graeme Cremer (Zimbabwe)
Yes, it’s another wrist spinner because, as noted above, these bowlers dominate the shortest format and, in Cremer, Zimbabwe have a damn handy one.
Cremer is more of a traditional leg spinner than the likes of Shadab Khan or Rashid Khan in that he looks to flight the ball and beat batsmen in the air, whereas the two Khans try to dart the ball in and defeat batsmen off the deck.
Cremer gets sharp drift on his deliveries due to the heavy revolutions he imparts on the ball. But he doesn’t rely on his ripping leg break, Cremer also has a fine googly. He will likely loop the ball more than any other spinner in this series, inviting the batsmen to try to hit him over the top. The likes of Maxwell and Finch will try to do just that.
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
A little bit surprisingly, Australia won the match against Pakistan handsomely by 9 wickets with 9 overs to spare. Aaron finch hit a 33 balls 78 to send Pakistan out-of-the-park. Probably extra bounce in the Harare pitch helped both Australian bowlers and batsmen, just like at home. Billy Stanlake took 4/8 in 4 overs to send Pakistan reeling. I hope Australia will win all the 5 matches in this Series (including Final).
George
Guest
Is that a quote from the Hayden Way doctrine?
KenoathCarnt
Guest
Yea Watto would be the crown juel in this side a perfect 6th bowling option and ability to completely take the game away with the bat. Unfortunately just seems very unlikely to come out of retirement
Noah Barling
Roar Pro
I would select Watto over Khawaja, bring him out of retirement i reckon,
Noah Barling
Roar Pro
Cremer was unavailable for selection due to the money problem over in Zimbabwe where players are not getting payed.
KenoathCarnt
Guest
Prefered Team but not going to happen. Current fit or non banned players. Khawaja Finch Head Maxwell Carey Christian Agar Wildermuth Tye Stanlake Ahmed So frustrating having Warner banned and Lynn injured. A full strength batting lineup is good enough to match anyone and Starc or NCN or Cummins back would strengthen the bowling.
Just Nuisance
Guest
Nice article Ronan . Great to see Zimbabwe in the mix . They have really great potential and can only improve by regular contact with top tier countries. In the 1960's - 1980's Under the old name of Rhodesia , they competed as in the South Africa Currie Cup and were very competitive producing players such as Mike Proctor , Colin Bland , John Traicos to name but a few . Traicos and Proctor were of course part of the SA team that whitewashed Australia in 1970. Also an interesting stat about the dominance of spinners in T20 and I also think that Shadab Khan is a massive talent . Spinners historically take a few years longer to reach maturity . Not this fellow. P.S I used to post as DavSA but went for a more interesting moniker .
Rellum
Roar Guru
Totally agree. Boyce was fantastic.
BrainsTrust
Roar Rookie
Go into every game from now on knowing that you can be the best. Just because of the recent past issues doesnt change that Australia is a leading force in Australia. Let your talent shine and be confident and positive and accept your ability always. The past is the past and is now history. Forward and onward and know that Australians and Australia are all behind you.
Krishna Singh
Roar Rookie
Zampa should have been given more games
Krishna Singh
Roar Rookie
Our batsman including finch and short looked clueless against spin in England. Young batsman coming up doesn’t know how to play spin including some indians. With more and more T20's majority of the players will become hit or miss. Lets focus on this first. Shame we don't have khawaja opening as he is fantastic against power play and playing spin really well in county. Some problems for us include: 1. We need good spinners... 2. We need batsmen who can play spin well in any condition 3. We need fast bowlers who can be fit & available 12 months for their team
Krishna Singh
Roar Rookie
Need to stop making excuses and win against pakistan, they have always struggled against us, zero wins is not acceptable and zimbabwe won't count
JamesH
Roar Guru
I wonder what Australia's record for losing consecutive international matches is? This would make it 7 on the trot (although surely they couldn't lose to Zimbabwe in the following game... could they?). Having said that, Australia were hugely impressive in the Tri Series last summer and they are only missing Warner (who didn't have a great tournament anyway) and Lynn (who was omitted). Maxwell, Short, Stoinis, Stanlake, Agar, Tye and Richardson are all there.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I think Zampa has been unfairly ditched based on his ODI struggles. Just another instance of selectors failing to distinguish between formats. Boyce being left out of the last T20I world cup squad was bizarre.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Absolutely
BurgyGreen
Guest
The saddest thing for Boyce is that he seems to have lost all confidence since that inexplicable dropping. Apart from Watson, he was the standout Australian player in that series, yet he doesn't make the next squad. Zampa and Boyce would be a fantastic tandem spin attack - Zampa the skiddier, more modern leggie and Boyce with flight and sharp turn
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
It's so confusing Burgy. Boyce had a great start to his T20I career - averaged 19 with an economy rate of 6.6rpo in his eight games. In Boyce's last match for Australia he was incredibly impressive. Against a rampant Indian batting lineup of Kohli, Rohit, Dhawan, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Raina (which made 3-200 from 20 overs) Boyce took 2-28 from four overs and got rid of both Kohli and Rohit by beating them in the flight. It was a fantastic display of leg spin bowling against some of the most dominant players of spin in the world. Yet Boyce has never been seen since - that is insane. The same goes for Zampa - his T20I record is absolutely sensational (avg. of 15, economy of 6rpo) after 13 matches, yet he's been ditched too.
BurgyGreen
Guest
Swepson, like Neser, appears to have been selected for white ball cricket on the basis of Shield form. The selectors just don't know what to do with spinners in the limited overs formats, to an embarrassing extent. Muirhead, Boyce and Zampa have all been discarded without any good reason over the last few years. Can't imagine what this string of abandoned legspinners are supposed to make of their omissions.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
You're right Tanmoy, Pakistan are a fantastic T20I side and have been at or near the top of the rankings for many years now. Should be a cracking match today. Really looking forward to watching Shadab bowl.
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
Australians have to play out-of-their-skin against the No.1 Ranked Pakistan to defeat them. Pakistan has played maximum (128) T20I matches and are No.1 in the World for quite some time. Yesterday they defeated Zimbabwe handsomely by 74 runs.