Paradise lost: Why the SCG is now a spinner’s worst nightmare
Australia just hosted the first Test in its history that did not feature a single ball of spin. And life may not get much easier in Sydney, traditionally a haven for slow bowlers.
Fresh from the first Test to be played on Australian soil without a single ball of spin being bowled, stark numbers have revealed the SCG’s slide from a Test tweaker’s paradise to slow bowling graveyard.
Off-spinner Todd Murphy is in line to reclaim a spot in Australia’s XI for the New Year’s Test after coach Andrew McDonald conceded going without a spinner at the MCG on Boxing Day was “not something that we like doing”.
Australia opted for all-out pace in Melbourne, while Will Jacks’ part-time off-spin went unused by England, which was vindicated on a seaming deck that yielded 36 wickets in 142 overs (a wicket every four overs).
The previous fewest balls of spin bowled in a Test in Australia was the two overs Viv Richards and Larry Gomes combined for at the WACA in 1984.
Estimates of $15 million being lost in gate takings from the two-day Ashes Tests in Perth and Melbourne point to a flatter pitch in Sydney, particularly after last year’s Australia-India Test finished well inside three days.
Traditionally regarded as a spinner’s deck with turn and grip since the 1970s, the SCG has proven anything but for the past decade.
Injured veteran Nathan Lyon’s career tally of 49 wickets on his home pitch, at an average of almost 40, is actually better than most.
Especially when the past five years have confirmed the SCG is undoubtedly Australia’s toughest venue for spinners, with their wickets in Sydney coming at an average of 49 runs apiece.
Those scalps have taken time too – almost 93 balls, or more than 15 overs each – making the SCG the nation’s toughest Test venue for slow bowlers.
For comparison, fast bowlers have taken 108 wickets at the SCG since the 2021 Australia-India Test at an average of 27.72.
How much help can Todd Murphy expect from the SCG pitch?Credit: Getty Images
None of Australia’s Test grounds have been particularly helpful to spinners during the past five years, but nowhere does the gap between spin and fast-bowling averages (almost 22 runs a wicket) come close to the SCG.
Since hosting the first of 113 Tests in 1882, the spin bowling average of 33.21 is the lowest of all Australia’s regular Test venues (spinners average a combined 31.82 at Hobart’s Bellerive Oval).