Australia may be forced to reassess its team configuration following Sunday evening’s disappointing six-wicket loss to India in Chennai.
When confronted with a spin-friendly pitch at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Australia fielded a starting XI that was more suited for the Gabba, picking Adam Zampa as the lone strike spinner.
Indian tweakers Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav collectively claimed 6-104 from 30 overs in Chennai, ripping through Australia’s middle order and helping roll the five-time champions for 199.
The talented trio relentlessly targeted the stumps and let the crumbling surface do most of the work, with some deliveries turning sideways while others continued on with the arm.
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“Especially in the ODI and white-ball formats, you just keep hitting the stumps, that’s important for any spinner,” Kuldeep later explained.
“That’s what we were trying, and we’ve been speaking to in meetings as well, just keep hitting the stumps.”
Meanwhile, Australian leg-spinner Zampa struggled to grip the ball because of the evening dew, which made the ball softer and wetter during the run chase. It left pundits, including Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar, questioning whether captain Pat Cummins should have elected to bowl first after winning the toss.
“The dew came in and it probably got a little bit harder for our spinners to hold the ball,” Australian batter Steve Smith said on Monday.
“If it stays the same without the dew, it’s probably game on.”
Despite assurances that Glenn Maxwell should also be considered a frontline spinner, the Victorian didn’t trouble India’s world-class batters on Sunday; the all-rounder’s bowling was tidy, but not threatening.
Unfortunately, Australia doesn’t have another spinner in their 15-player squad to call upon since Ashton Agar was ruled out of the tournament with a calf injury. Rather than replacing Agar with another spinner, national selectors opted to parachute Marnus Labuschagne into the touring party to boost Australia’s batting stocks.
Travis Head, a handy part-time off-spinner, is still recovering from his broken wrist in Adelaide, while young leggie Tanveer Sangha was picked as a touring reserve, currently unavailable for selection.
Subsequently, Australia’s team configuration for the upcoming two World Cup fixtures at Ekana Stadium, which has a reputation for taking spin, remains a mystery. The BCCI recently sacked the Lucknow venue’s head groundsman because the surfaces he produced had too much turn.
The Australians will be confronted with varying conditions throughout the six-week World Cup campaign, and their squad boasts the resources to post 350-plus scores on batter-friendly decks with short boundaries. However, they are heavily understaffed in the spin department for the upcoming matches against South Africa and Sri Lanka.
“I think we can learn a bit from this game, definitely. We’ve talked as a group about playing to the surface that we’re on,” Smith continued.
“In tournament play you don’t want to be peaking too early.
“You‘ve got to do enough to make your way to the finals but play your best cricket at the end. Hopefully we can turn it around and beat South Africa in a few days’ time.”
Australia might consider sacrificing one of their injured players for an additional spinner, with Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Swepson, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Sangha among the leading candidates.
All-rounder Marcus Stoinis, who is still recovering from a hamstring complaint that ruled him out of the tournament opener, might be the unfortunate player who faces the axe in such a scenario.
Meanwhile, finding a spot for a second spinner in Australia’s starting XI is no simple task, with either Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood or Pat Cummins needing to make way.
Starc is one of Australia’s most prolific wicket-takers in ODI history, Hazlewood was the clear standout during Sunday’s loss against India, while Cummins is the captain.
However, Hazlewood was adamant Australia’s world-class pace attack remained the team’s biggest weapon in the field, regardless of the conditions.
“Our quicks are our strength up front, as we saw tonight,” Hazlewood said on Sunday.
“We might come up against these conditions again at other grounds, so it’ll just be about the batting group coming up with the plan (to combat the spin) and sticking to it.
“I think Glenn Maxwell is a frontline spinner in particular in India. He’s bowled a lot here throughout IPL and one-dayers, so we’ve got two spinners and three quicks as a lot of the other teams do.
“I don’t feel that we’re short at all.”
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Importantly, adding another spinner to the squad won’t resolve Australia’s most glaring problem — batting against quality spin on dry wickets in the subcontinent.
Australia’s susceptibility to spin was exposed during this year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and six members of the team’s top seven fell victim to slow bowlers on Sunday.
“There was a bit of a lack of aggression from the Australian batters. I think they’ll be disappointed by the intent they showed and the fact that they weren’t able to put any pressure back on India,” former Australian captain Aaron Finch told ICC this week.
“It needs a mindset shift, to look to be on the front foot a little more and take some calculated risks.”
The Proteas have Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj at their disposal, and the South Africans will almost certainly call upon both spinners if the conditions are as expected.
Australia will face South Africa at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium on Thursday, with the first ball scheduled for 7.30pm AEDT.
