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Legspinner Mitchell Swepson will make his Test debut for Australia when the second Test gets underway against Pakistan in Karachi on Saturday.
After a drawn series-opener, Swepson replaces paceman Josh Hazlewood, who missed most of the Ashes with injury. Hazlewood was restricted to a bit part role as Pakistan blunted Australia’s pace led attack in the first test stalemate with speculation over the NSW star’s fitness.
“We think particularly a wrist spinner of Swepo’s quality gives us the best chance to take 20 wickets (in the Test),” Australia captain Pat Cummins said on Friday.
Swepson and Ashton Agar were considered in line to join offspinner Nathan Lyon in the team. Swepson has taken 154 wickets in 51 first class games.
In what has been an emotional week for everyone involved in Austrlaian cricket, Cummins made a nod to Swepson’s debut coming soon after the death of Shane Warne.
“I think it’s quite special that someone like Mitchell Swepson is going to debut tomorrow as a legspinner who grew up trying to replicate Warnie,” Cummins said.
For all the success of Warne and fellow leggie Stuart MacGill it has been a long wait for another to emerge in the Test arena for the Aussies as Swepson becomes the first to play since Bryce McGain’s one off Test in 2009.
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Swepson has long been groomed for Test cricket. He toured to India with Australia in early 2017, without getting a game, and has had more success in T20 cricket.
Swepson’s breakthrough comes after several years of toil on domestic pitches he believes haven’t been overly conducive to the spinners’ craft, especially late in games.
“I can’t see it being anything other than the fact the conditions nowadays, wickets are just holding together so much better, you find that spinners are having more impact earlier in the game when the wickets are fresher and have a bit more moisture in it and have that tackiness to them,” Swepson told Cricinfo last year.
“It’s a little bit frustrating because growing up and watching a lot of cricket as a youngster and as a spinner, day four is your day, your time to shine, but I really haven’t had much experience of doing that and playing that role.”
He feels he’s done the hard work to succeed at Test level and Cummins agrees.
“I had to learn the hard way about how challenging Shield cricket is specifically,” Swepson told Cricinfo.
“Those drag downs or full tosses that you might slip up on every now and then, you get away with in premier grade cricket, but you step up to Shield cricket and those sorts of things are what you have to get out of your game if you want to have success.
“So as I’ve developed my game a little bit, I’ve had to change the way I went about my bowling and understand my role more in the team and just become a bit more of a holding bowler, rather than as a youngster, as a leggie I was always taught that you’ve got to try and attack and take wickets and that’s my role.
“But for my role in Queensland, the best role I can play is almost to play second fiddle to our quicks, which as long as the team is having success, I was happy to adapt my game around that.”
The 28-year-old Swepson, was tutored by Warne, who died from a heart attack at a Thailand resort last Saturday morning, Australian time.
Warne’s death came less than 24 hours after another Australian cricket great, Rod Marsh, passed away from a heart attack.
“Everyone is going OK … everyone is still in disbelief,” Cummins said.
“But they have shared a lot of stories, especially of Warney who was the hero to a lot of our players growing up.
“Everyone is getting around each other … these kind of moments give everyone some clarity and perspective.
“The way he (Warne) played was a pretty good blueprint for every player that wants to be part of Test wins.
“If anything, a few of those stories have hit home and invigorated a lot of the players.”
Cummins says the likelihood of the Karachi pitch breaking up presented the perfect opportunity to blood Swepson as a spin partner to frontline tweaker Nathan Lyon.
“He has spent a lot of time running drinks over the last couple of years and is absolutely ready,” he said.
“The wicket here looks a little bit drier, historically it’s a bit friendlier for the spinners.
“We think particularly a wrist spinner of Swepos’ quality gives us … the best opportunity to take 20 wickets (in the Test).”
Cummins described Swepson, who has taken 154 wickets at an average of 34.55 from his 51 first-class games, as among the hardest workers he had seen.
“The first thing about a spin bowler, especially a wrist spin bowler, is to become really good you have got to work hard,” he said.
“And Swepo bowls for longer than just about anyone else in the nets and he has done for as long as I have been on tour with him.
“He is just a really good presence, really positive, a hard worker, good fun to be around and in terms of his cricket, just high quality.”
The Australians travelled to Karachi after taking just four Pakistani wickets in a mundane draw on a lifeless pitch in Rawalpindi in the series-opener.
The ICC has rated the Pindi pitch as below average amid Pakistan’s admission that it doctored that strip to blunt Australia’s renowned fast bowlers.
“For a long time it has been a lot of our strengths, Test sides, to be able to have tall fast bowlers,” Cummins said.
“So I don’t blame anywhere that they try and produce conditions that might nullify the opposition.
“If anything, I found it a real positive that they went away from a wicket that they would traditionally play there in Rawalpindi.”
Australian XI: Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Swepson.
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