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After frequently being cowed by spinners in ODI cricket over the past two years, Australia’s batsmen have made the bold move of attacking the slow bowlers in this World Cup. It is working spectacularly well.
In Australia’s six matches in this tournament, opposition spinners have taken just seven wickets at 78, while conceding a whopping 6.7 runs per over.
This is the result of a calculated and major change of approach by the Australian batsmen. To understand just how large a shift has occurred in Australia’s strategy against spin, cast your mind back to their series against England last year.
As England thrashed Australia in those back-to-back five-match series, their spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali suffocated the Australian batsmen.
Across those ten matches, that pair combined to take 39 wickets at 25 while conceding only 5.4 runs per over. The way in which Rashid and Moeen harried the Australian batsmen was key to their side’s dominance. All too often the Australians allowed the English slow bowlers to control the middle overs.
Rarely did they take them on. Instead of looking to be assertive against Rashid and Moeen early in their spells to dent their confidence and mess with England’s bowling plans, they consistently played out their overs in a meek fashion.
Not long after that, when India won 2-1 in Australia and then took a 2-0 lead in the return series, Australia again met the spinners with minimal aggression.
The Indian slow bowlers conceded just 4.88 runs per over in those five matches as the Australian batsmen, for the most part, sought to survive rather than thrive.
This safety-first approach against spin was allowing Australia’s opponents to boss the middle overs. It was also putting pressure on the Australian batsmen to score rapidly off the quicks.
Then Australia changed course. Over the final three ODIs in India, with nothing to lose, they went after the home spinners.
Australia scored at seven runs per over from India’s gun spinners in those final three matches as they engineered an incredible come-from-behind series win.
The Aussies have not looked back since. In their World Cup opener against Afghanistan, the chief threat from their opponents was spin. Australia clattered the highly-rated Afghanistan spinners for 2/129 at nearly seven runs per over, with Aaron Finch making a point of targeting Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who opened the bowling.
Australian captain Aaron Finch is attacking the slow bowlers this World Cup. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Spin was barely a factor in Australia’s next World Cup fixture, with the Windies bowling 45 overs of pace.
After that Australia faced India, who boast the world’s best ODI spin combination in Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Australia’s batsmen took the Indian slow bowlers for 2/131 from their 20 overs. Yet it could be argued that a key reason they fell behind in their chase of India’s total of 352 was their lack of daring early on against India’s spinners.
Australia’s batsmen had a chance to make amends for that caution next up against Pakistan. In their upset win over England, Pakistan’s two finger spinners had bogged down the home batsmen, combining for 2/53 from 10 overs.
Those same spinners, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, were then thumped for 1/86 from 11 overs by Australia. The intent of the Aussies to pressure the Pakistan spinners was apparent from the first over sent down by Hafeez.
Finch, who had made a sedate start of 44 from 60 balls, launched the off spinner for four, four and then a monstrous six from consecutive deliveries. Then Shoaib came on and was pumped for 19 from his first two overs. Pakistan’s slow bowlers never had the chance to settle and it upset their team’s bowling plans.
In the following match, spin was sparingly used against Australia, with the Sri Lankan tweakers taking 2/57 from 10 overs.
But then Australia faced a Bangladesh attack which leans heavily on the influence of its spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz. In Bangladesh’s two wins of this World Cup that pair had been tidy, conceding just 5.5 runs per over.
The control they gave their captain in the middle overs was key to the Tigers managing the tempo of those matches.
The Aussies were not going to let the Bangladesh spinners choke their innings. Shakib came on inside the first power play and promptly bled 24 runs from his three-over spell.
He was dragged and replaced by off spinner Miraz, who gave up 12 runs from his first over as Finch went for the throat. Australia had scored 36 runs from the first four overs of spin sent down by Bangladesh.
The way in which Australia manhandled the Bangladesh spinners from early in their spells forced skipper Mushfiqur Rahim to turn to a medium pacer who had never taken an ODI wicket. While that bowler, Soumya Sarkar, ended up snaring 3/58 from his eight overs, the fact Bangladesh had to turn to a rank part-timer underlined how they had been disturbed by the Australian aggression against their spinners.
In the space of just over three months, Australia’s batsmen have gone from prey to predator against spin.
This strategy has been at the heart of a surprising resurgence as they’ve won 13 wins from their past 14 matches.
It could also help them get into yet another World Cup final.