During Australia’s wretched run in ODIs over 2017 and 2018 there was a heavy focus on the side’s feeble batting.
What was comparatively overlooked was the lack of strike power they possessed with the ball through the middle of the innings.
This is the period during which spinners are key. It’s the period when top teams India and England stall the opposition’s momentum with their slow bowlers. Australia, meanwhile, were getting very few wickets out of their tweakers, with leggie Adam Zampa in a major form trough, and finger spinners Nathan Lyon and Ashton Agar lacking penetration.
They could not go close to replicating the efforts of Indian spin pair Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, or the England combination of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali.
Never was this more apparent than across the back-to-back ODI series against England last year, during which Australia registered a woeful 1-9 win-loss record.
Across those ten ODIs, England got a whopping 39 wickets out of Rashid and Moeen, who continually proved both frugal and penetrative in the crucial 10 to 40 over period in the middle of an ODI innings.
Australia, quite incredibly, earned just seven wickets from their specialist spinners in those same ten matches. The difference in threat posed by the spinners from each side was phenomenal, with the English slow bowlers taking a wicket every 4.4 overs, compared to every 13.6 overs for the Australian spinners.
The means the English spinners were literally three times more effective than their Aussie counterparts in terms of strike rate.
While the English spin pair averaged 25 across those two series, Australia’s specialist tweakers averaged a horrendous 74. Now, it must be said that the Australian spinners faced the harder task given England possessed the far superior batting line-up.
But the consistent inability of the Australian tweakers to make breakthroughs in the middle overs placed enormous pressure on their fast bowling colleagues. This was the case across most of 2017 and 2018 as Australia tumbled into an unprecedented form trough.
It was particularly evident in the final ten overs when Australia’s quicks were commonly butchered at the death by batting line-ups which had been put under no pressure during the middle overs. Quite obviously, the only way to limit the carnage created by elite ODI batting units like England and India is by taking wickets.
Against these sides, if your spinners have no impact and so your opponent heads into the last ten overs with set batsmen at the crease and wickets in hand, the damage inflicted will be fatal.
Consider the case of India, who have been a dominant ODI team over the past two years. Their single greatest strength in that time has not been their incredible top three – which may be the best in history – but rather the way in which Kuldeep and Chahal have consistently taken wickets in the middle overs.
At his best, this is just what Zampa does. The South Australian is a natural wicket taker in white ball cricket. This much was clear from his first year playing for Australia, 2016, when he was the leading ODI wicket taker worldwide with 30 wickets at a fantastic rate of 1.6 wickets per match.
(AAP Image/SNPA, John Cowpland)
With Zampa hoarding wickets in the middle overs, Australia had a terrific 2016 finishing with a 17-11 win-loss record. Then over 2017 and 2018, as Zampa’s form nosedived and he missed a lot of matches, Australia were awful winning just seven of their 28 ODIs.
Now Zampa is back in fine touch and Australia, not surprisingly, are on a sharp upward curve. He has averaged 1.6 wickets per match from his 11 ODIs this year, coinciding with massively improved performances by Australia. In 2017 and 2018, when Zampa lost his way, he largely abandoned his googly and started bowling very flat.
This year he is trusting his wrong ‘un once more, is varying his pace and trajectory nicely, and has once again become a major threat for Australia in the middle overs.
With Pat Cummins in scorching form with the new ball and gun death bowler Mitchell Starc returning from injury, Australia’s bowling attack may soon have all three phases of the innings well covered. Zampa is the glue that binds it all together.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
But is Finch thriving with the added responsibility. Moot point.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
? Why your batsmen . Won't be " greened up" won't happen but may be neutral ie. That would fully favor England.
Rellum
Roar Guru
They could green it up against everyone. They might bring in South Africa, India, Pakistan and our bowlers but India and our Batsmen will probably be found it on the green decks.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
All the other ten teams in the World Cup except the West Indies have spinners ranked much higher than Zampa, who is ranked 45th. India have three ranked higher, including Kuldeep (7) and Chahal (8). England, NZ, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan each have two ranked higher and at least one in the top 25. South Africa have Imran Tahir, ranked 4th. There are seven spinners in the top 20 bowlers. So on paper, Zampa is one of our weakest links, along with Carey and Stoinis (although the ICC ODI ratings seem more questionable than their Test rankings).
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Curious comment. England haven’t made the final since 1992. Their only other ones were ‘79 and ‘87. They had no chance in ‘79 vs the Windies.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Nope JC. Getting shafted spectacularly by Duckworth Lewis is a South African speciality. Don't give that title to another country.... Ironically Duckworth Lewis were 2 South Africa school kids who formulated the system.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Agreed on the possibility of roads.. England can control the pitches but not the fickle English weather gods. It could backfire. England for my money have easily the most balanced team. Might want to opt for fair contest tracks instead. Road pitches bring, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and even Bangladesh and Afghanistan into the picture far more strongly.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Smith, eh? Everything wrong with Aussie cricket is Smith's captaincy! CA brought Ponting into the mix a couple of years ago to work with short form cricket. Australia has a group of selectors, different captains and coaches and played in many different locations in irrelevant series in the last couple of years. Surely it's obvious with Australia's previous WC success that the whole organization has been experimenting with different plans and different players to work towards this tournament. All players deserve the chance to prove their ability in different conditions. Is it inconceivable that Smith was following a game plan devised to provide options for this tournament. This article also noted that Zampa RETURNED to the wicket taking form he showed in 2016.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Good luck to Zampa, he's worked hard and sucked up the form slump. He's an important cog in bowling sides out, as variety and multiple threats make it difficult for opponents to make plans.
TheCunningLinguistic
Roar Rookie
I agree, Ronan. He is definitely one of the more important cogs. I’m still inclined to think our weakest links will be Starc, Carey, Stoinis and, surprisingly, Smith. Starc is coming off a long injury lay-off and takes a while to build. Carey is solid but struggles to accelerate. Stoinis has done little to inspire confidence lately, both with bat and ball. And Smith? Call it a gut-feel, I just see him struggling somewhat in this format, in England. Happy to be wrong.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Yup. South Africa’s brains trust agree and have gone for 2 attacking spinners, Tahir and Shamstri, could easily have gone for….. Which they have in the past for a holding spinner….. Despite our pace attack spin will hold the keys to cricket glory.
Gurlivleen Grewal
Roar Pro
Glad you are recognizing the English spinners. A while back we were having a discussion if they are that good! ???? Zampa and Cummins give a definite edge to the Aussies in the middle. I don’t expect Starc to be on song – he has returned from injuries a couple of times and always had underwhelming returns. Warner and now Finch have proven to be better tacticians than Smith. The spinners were doing well even under Warner too. Spinners thrive on confidence and every now and then a wicket-taker will have an off day. Kohli has been guilty of jettisoning the leggies in the past, the punt on Jadeja is very similar to the treatment to Zampa. In fact “Experts” now think KulCha won’t play together! SA have come around to this too – expect both Tahir and Shamsi to play if the conditions are suitable. So even though Lyon seemingly struggles in batting friendly conditions, the Aussies should bank on the duo to trouble all teams. Lyon is good enough to fox decent right handers and is a handful against lefties. Interestingly these 4 teams are also the most favoured to be semi-finalists.
Nudge
Roar Rookie
I’m surprised you do Ronan. I don’t rate them that highly. Too reliant on Kohli for me and he hasn’t been in the greatest of nick lately. They are very reliant on their openers, Dhawan and Sharma and obviously Kohli. If you’ve got world class quicks, Dhawan can be knocked over early as we saw in the recent Oz, India series. I think in hindsight the idea to tour India before the World Cup was a master stroke. We got a close look at India’s gun spinners and we were playing them with ease by the end of the series. This experience will be huge if we face them in the knockouts’s. I’m also a little confused how you can have them as favourites for the cup. Considering we won the recent series against them, in India with out Smith, Warner and Starc, while for memory they only had Pandya our for the majority.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
That's why I still have India as my favourites to win the World Cup - Kuldeep and Chahal are so often devastating in union through those middle overs.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
100% in agreement about the importance to Aus of Zampa. Not because he is Adam Zampa but because I strongly suspect wicket taking spinners are going to be crucial this WC. Tahir equally important to South Africa as are other tweaker to their team which you covered.
JC
Roar Rookie
You can always rely on England to be England. They’ll go all the way through and get rolled in the final after getting told to pick their knighthoods up at reception on the way to Buckingham palace. That or they get completely shafted by duckworth Lewis in comical fashion.
JC
Roar Rookie
Then again once he got given the captaincy his batting went to the next level and then some. Biggest worry with Smith is he feels constrained by lack of responsibility and goes into his shell at just the wrong time.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Starcs 2015 form was on another level. Cummins makes us very competitive, Starc in full form makes us winners.
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Have you seen Cummins bowl lately? If Starc gets somewhere near his best with Cummins Zampa and Richardson with Maxwell and Stoinis as your 5th bowler that’s a pretty formidable line up. England’s crash and bash style only has to come unstuck for one match at the pointy end of the tournament and she’s all over. We saw what happened recently to them in the West Indies. I’d back Australia to hold there nerve during knock out fixtures over the poms. 5 world cups gives me that confidence.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Smith has never seemed to have faith in spinners in white ball cricket - Australia have really undervalued spinners in the shorter formats for a long time now.