As the Big Bash slash and dash hurtles towards an action-packed end, visions of Steve Smith slicing sixes behind point, David Warner mauling drives over cover or Matt Short belting good-length balls past the long-on boundary are about to give way to the national team’s next serious cricket in Sri Lanka.
The pitches prepared for the Bash have been in the main excellent surfaces, made for very limited-over cricket, palatable for hitting sixes. The pitches for the India Tests were green and very spicy, delivering batting indigestion. Fast bowling dominated; many runs were earned through unorthodoxy, luck and bruises. India, had Jasprit Bumrah been fit for the final innings in Sydney, may well have rescued the trophy.
The crowds were transfixed by the action. You couldn’t look away lest a wicket or a sharp catch or a reverse-ramped boundary came along. Wickets fell regularly, slip drops and catches filled replays. The fifth and deciding Test finished before tea on the third day of the scheduled five; the Cricket Australia accountants were unhappy, the fans and neophytes babbled and bubbled about the game.
The character of the pitch, combined with quality seam bowling, were the significant ingredients for the short Test match.
Cricket purists acknowledged the unique tension created by low-scoring yet close contests, but would not consider this series a “classic”. There was hardly an over of spin to be twirled at the SCG. Ravi Ashwin saw the writing on the pitch square and retired. The genius of Ravindra Jadeja was neutered. Nathan Lyon added just the single wicket to his 538, and that was on day one.
Nathan Lyon celebrates the wicket of Shubman Gill at the SCG, his only wicket in the Sydney Test.Credit: Getty Images
In an interview this week Adam Zampa bemoaned the scarce opportunities for his kind to play Test cricket. He cited the one and only Warnie as the last wrist spinner to command a permanent position in the national team and, of course, that is true, although there have been times when wrist spin has been an Australian staple. Finger spinners have been conservative run blockers, taking the occasional scalp, waiting for the dusty pitch to be truly effective, but used primarily to “keep an end tight” and help the over rate.
The use of isolated digits rather than a convex wrist is a safer but less penetrating art. Bowling consistent, high-revving leg-spin is arguably the toughest skill in the game. Bowling inconsistent, high-revving leggies might run second.
Shane Warne was the best of his type in the history of the game. To compare him with any other wrist spinner requires forbearance. Clarrie Grimmett had phenomenal numbers (216 Test wickets at 24) and SCG MacGill had a better strike rate (54 balls per wicket) than Warne (57). Bill O’Reilly bowled medium-paced top spinners that leapt at the splice of the bat, so not a leggie in the true wrist spin genre, but outrageously effective. Anil Kumble’s wrong’un, top spinner and sliders hit many front pads and middle stumps. Kerry O’Keeffe used his height and overspin bounce to bring short legs into play. Warne’s mentor, Terry Jenner, snapped the wrist high and fast. Richie Benaud spun hard, used the air to deceive and cajoled the batsmen to attack him.
All were different, but the same. Warne inspired many, but it’s a long, winding, frustrating road from the nets at the local park to the big arenas. Putting humans on Mars would be easier than building another Warne.
Warne backed up quicks Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz, Brett Lee. Often he led them.
Shane Warne is given a standing ovation after claiming his 700th Test wicket at the MCG on Boxing Day 2006.Credit: Fairfax
Great teams are made up of great combinations. The off-spin of Ashley Mallett backed Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson and Max Walker. Bruce Yardley bowled some tough finger-spinning overs for Terry Alderman, Rodney Hogg and a bloke called Lawson.
Zampa has been terrific for Australia in white-ball cricket, but the lines, lengths and arcs of shorter forms need modification for Test success, and that takes effort and, more importantly, game time. Zampa is not needed for Sri Lanka, but neither is any other leg-spinner.
The current Australian team has fielded one of the least-changed attacks of all time: Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood, Lyon and, when there is an injury, a bloke called Boland steps in.
Australia’s Scott Boland gets Virat Kohli’s wicket at the SCG in a series dominated by fast bowlers.Credit: Getty Images
Lyon’s remarkable 134 Tests is a result of his enduring physical fitness and considerable skill bowling an orthodox finger spinner; just vanilla-flavoured offies with swoop, dip and revs, and a tactical brain that few are willing to give him sufficient credit for.
In his dotage, Warne became a T20 mercenary, modifying his trajectory and out-thinking the sloggers. Where fast bowling was predicted to be the skill of choice in the shortest form and spinners would be wheeled off to the retirement home, the opposite has happened. Afghani wrist spinner Rashid Khan could claim to be the most effective bowler in the modern T20 era.
Franchise coaches look for quality slow bowlers first and then seam bowlers with quality slower balls. The T20 wrist spinner’s theory is to pitch the ball on the stump line rather than outside. Drift is not an advantage in short form, unless it is accompanied by acute control.
Phenomenal: Leg spinner Bill O’Reilly dominated in the 1930s.Credit: Fairfax Media
To pitch in line with the stumps and deviate a fraction either way can bring the false stroke; not necessarily an edge but a mishit, maybe half an edge. In multi-day games the bowlers’ spikes wear patches on the pitch as it dries, cracks and crumbles into which spinners can land for more grip and hence more spin and unpredictable bounce. Batsmen don’t like that stuff; it’s not what they get in T20.
The Australian selectors have decided they don’t need a wrist spinner for the Sri Lanka Tests. They have put their faith in Lyon and his back-ups, right hand off-spinner Todd Murphy and left arm finger spinner Matthew Kuhnemann, who is battling a serious injury.
The two matches are at Galle, Muttiah Muralitharan’s spinning heaven on earth. It is no secret what style of pitches will be served up in the shadows of the Dutch Fort. Sri Lanka are entitled to their home-ground advantage, just as Australia have been this summer. The Galle International Cricket Stadium pitches will be browner than the Hay plain and as slow as a Sydney train. Lyon’s workload is about to spike.
Selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide and coach Andrew McDonald did not play nor captain much cricket in spinning conditions in their careers. Do they understand the subtleties and nuance of the skill? Do they understand the value of the difference that wrist spinners bring?
Sri Lanka will almost certainly play three spinners, and have a couple of batsmen who bowl decent part-time stuff. I guess Beau Webster can roll out his offies, while Travis Head is useful and Marnus Labuschagne will harangue captain Steve Smith for a bowl at every turn. It has been quite a few yesterdays since Smith made his Test debut as a leg-spinning all-rounder, although he probably wasn’t consulted on the squad selection and hasn’t been seen at the bowling crease since an over was eight balls long.
The squad balance was screaming out for “difference”. Leggies Mitchell Swepson and Tanveer Sangha might be crying into their hydration liquids. I certainly hope their Big Bash expertise is not harming their Test hopes.
As the succession program for Test batsmen has been left to injury, chance and self-retirement announcements, the opportunity to bring the next leg-spinner into the Test arena has also been badly missed. Tiger O’Reilly would be spinning in is grave.
