Australia and England have no faith in their spin bowling options. These Ashes lack variety
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Paul Newman
The hosts went into the fifth Test at the SCG without a specialist spinner for the first time since 1888, and may end up regretting it
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Perhaps it was just as well Shane Warne was not around to comment on Australia’s decision to go into a Sydney Test without a specialist spinner for the first time, incredibly, since 1888.
Goodness knows what the greatest of them all would have made of his country taking on the old enemy at what was once the ground where spin was king with just the part-time slow bowling of Beau Webster to complement an otherwise all-seam attack.
Not to mention England doing the same and completing an Ashes without once fielding Shoaib Bashir, the spin bowler they have spent the last two years grooming with this very series in mind.
There was no sign of Todd Murphy, included in the Australian squad as a replacement for the injured Nathan Lyon and expected to play, nor Bashir when both sides declared their hand for the final Test in front of a full-house at the SCG.
For Australia, it was a first appearance in this Ashes for Webster — as much a medium-pacer as a spinner — in place of Jhye Richardson and ahead of off-spinner Murphy to play alongside his fellow all-rounder, Cameron Green.
Todd Murphy warms up before the toss, but there would be no eighth Test cap at the SCG (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
England, meanwhile, once again preferred the part-time spin of Will Jacks. That amounted to a concession that their left-field pick of Bashir, a novice slow bowler without a county cricket pedigree but whose height and bounce might suit Australia, had failed.
“I hate doing this,” admitted Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith at the toss when confirming Murphy’s absence. “But, as I’ve said, we keep producing wickets that we don’t think are going to spin.
“Seam’s going to play a big part here and there are going to be cracks that get wider as the game goes on and they will play a big part for seamers too. You kind of get pushed into a corner in a way so that’s the way we’ve gone.”
Ben Stokes wins the toss and chooses to bat first in Sydney for the final Ashes Test! pic.twitter.com/ynyai5cCUC
But was there dissension in the Australian camp over the contentious selection? Jason Gillespie, their former fast bowler and now a leading commentator, certainly thinks so. “Andrew McDonald (the Australian coach) said the other day basically that Todd Murphy would play,” Gillespie said on ABC. “Make no mistake: this is a Steve Smith decision.”
That was nothing compared to the reaction of another Australian commentator, Kerry O’Keeffe, himself a former Australia leg-spinner, who saw the move coming before play and did not exactly welcome it.
“If Australia don’t pick a spinner I’m taking the selection panel to the Hague (the international court of justice),” O’Keeffe spluttered on Fox Sports. “I’m going to the highest court in the world.
“I’ve seen both Sheffield Shield games on this strip this year. It spun, it’s been bouncing for the spinners. Murphy is a quality bowler and deserves to play at the SCG. I will be bereft if Australia go into this Test without a specialist spinner.” Cue a bereft O’Keeffe.
Nathan Lyon bowling at Adelaide, where Australia retained the Ashes (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Perhaps we should not be surprised.
Spin has played an ever decreasing role at all Australian grounds in recent years on pitches, like at the MCG for the fourth Test, that offer more seam movement and with a Kookaburra ball that now has a more pronounced seam. Even Lyon, their greatest off-spinner, played a peripheral role last year against India. He bowled two overs with his only impact in this series, before he ripped a hamstring, coming in the third Test in Adelaide.
When Lyon was left out of the pink-ball Test in Brisbane last month — and declared himself “absolutely filthy” about the decision — it was the first time Australia had gone into any home Test without a specialist spinner since January 2012, a run of 69 Tests.
And Sydney has actually become the least effective ground for spin in Australia, with wickets for slow bowlers coming at an average of 45.24 apiece in Tests since 2018. Consequently, according to the data analysts CricViz, spinners have only delivered 14 per cent of all overs so far in this series, the lowest proportion in any Ashes since the 1905 series in England.
“I’d love the old-school SCG,” Smith told reporters on the eve of the final Test. “Flat for two days. Footmarks starting to come in. Cracks opening. Reverse swing. Spin late in the game. Tricky to bat. That’s what you thought about Sydney in the past, but I don’t think it’s been like that for as long as I’ve played, unfortunately. It’s now one of Nathan Lyon’s worst grounds in Australia.”
Lyon has taken an impressive 49 wickets at the SCG, but his average of 39.2 here is considerably higher than the 30.15 across his Test career.
Steve Smith has bemoaned the fact Australian pitches are not conducive to spin (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The problem in England is more deep-rooted, with spinners struggling to play a part in a County Championship that has been pushed to the margins of the summer and is mostly now played early and late in the season at times not conducive to slow bowling.
Those grounds that have encouraged spin — like Northampton where Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar came through, and Taunton, home of Jack Leach and, for a while, Bashir — have been penalised for offering too much assistance to slow bowling.
Worryingly, the English spin cupboard is all but bare and encouraged England to take a punt on Bashir, initially for their tour of India at the start of 2024 after captain Ben Stokes saw him bowling a testing over at Alastair Cook in county cricket on social media.
It looked certain Bashir would play his predicted part in Australia when he featured in 19 consecutive Tests and took a respectable 68 wickets before a broken finger at Lord’s against India last summer ruled him out of the rest of the season.
His form for England in their warm-up game against their own Lions ahead of the Ashes, and for the Lions against Australia A, was then so bad England simply have not trusted him to play in the series, leaving his future uncertain. Bashir is currently without a county but The Athletic has been told by sources familiar with the situation that he has been offered a lifeline by second division Derbyshire.
Shoaib Bashir has found himself on twelfth man duties in Sydney (Philip Brown/Getty Images)
Australia apparently did not trust Murphy either.
All his seven Test appearances so far have come outside Australia and another of their former players turned pundit, Stuart Clark, believes Lyon would have played had he not pulled a hamstring in Adelaide.
“I think it’s more a reflection of no Lyon,” Clarke told ABC radio. “They don’t have the confidence in Murphy that they do Lyon. Unfortunately they do not believe Murphy is a suitable replacement.”
The problem for Australia now is they do seem to have misread the SCG pitch. It may have started with a green tinge and provided early seam movement as England slipped to 57-3, but it was looking very flat by the time bad light and rain ended play for the day just before tea with Joe Root and Harry Brook having added an unbroken 154.
There was a desperate need for some variety in the Australian attack, but there was none to whom Smith could turn.
It did look very conservative at the start for Australia, 3-1 up and with the Ashes long won, to pack their batting with Mitchell Starc as low as No 10, seemingly expecting another low scoring shoot-out in the manner of Perth and Melbourne. That decision already feels questionable at the premature close of day one.
If England can finally post a big score on day two there could yet be a chance for Jacks to prove he is actually more than just a part-timer, as his Surrey coach Gareth Batty insisted he could be when he spoke to The Athletic ahead of the Brisbane Test.
“Will’s best stock ball as a spinner is as good as anybody around today,” said Batty of Jacks, who is predominantly a batter. “He’s just like Moeen Ali was when he first played for England because, without having the exposure as a full-time spinner, he hasn’t had that volume of bowling. But this could be just the start for him as a spinner.”
Jacks has not justified Batty’s confidence so far in this series, particularly when he made little impact with the ball after being selected ahead of Bashir in Adelaide on what remains the only Australian ground that does still assist spin. But he will get another chance over the coming days in Sydney.
Which is more than can be said, worryingly for devotees of the subtlety of spin, for Murphy and Bashir.
