England missed a trick against NZ: Gillespie

Former Australia paceman and current Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie has identified spin as the area Australia will be superior to England in the upcoming Ashes series, beginning next Wednesday in Cardiff.

A frontrunner for the England coaching position that was eventually taken by compatriot Trevor Bayliss, Gillespie believes Nathan Lyon has the experience over fellow off-spinner Moeen Ali leading into the hugely-anticipated series, adding that Australia’s batsmen will make life much more difficult for the Englishman than Alastair Cook and co will for Lyon.

“Lyon will play a big role for Australia and that is somewhere where England simply have to be proactive – they cannot let him settle,” he said in his column with The Guardian. “That’s where England missed a massive trick in the Test series against New Zealand; they let Mark Craig bowl and go at 1.8 runs an over in the first innings at Headingley and it played a big part in why they lost.

“That’s just unacceptable batting. There is not an off-spinner in world cricket who should go at under two runs an over, so they cannot let Lyon settle into a groove. They need to put pressure back on him.

“You can be sure as hell that Australia will do that to Moeen Ali. They will go hard and make Cook go back to Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, Ben Stokes and get them bowling lots of spells.” 

Watch: Lyon's terrific 12 in Adelaide

Gillespie suggested that England, given the presence of part-time off-spinners Adam Lyth and Joe Root in their batting line-up, would be wise to select leg-spinner Adil Rashid in their XI ahead of Ali.

Rashid took four wickets in the opening ODI against the Black Caps this summer, while the 27-year-old has 392 first-class wickets at 34 but is yet to make his Test debut.

“The reason I would look to push for Rashid – and forget the county allegiance (he is from Yorkshire, the county Gillespie coaches) – is that you have Root and Lyth who can bowl off-spin,” he said.

“Why wouldn’t you have a spinner who turns it both ways? Is that harsh on Moeen Ali? It probably is and if he was top six you could look at it differently but the fact is he’s at No8, and what is best for the side would be to have a leg-spinner to complement the four quicks and the two lads who can bowl decent off-breaks. But I just can’t see England going down that path.”

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Gillespie wants his county spinner to play the first Ashes Test // Getty Images

Gillespie also qualified his previous statements that drew widespread media attention, in which he referred to Australia’s touring squad as ‘Dad’s Army’.

“I was asked the question as to how, if I was in the England camp, would I try to beat Australia,” he said. “Now I saw no glaring weaknesses in the Australian team … (but) they have 10 players over 30 years of age (in their touring squad), how can England use that to their advantage?

“So if I was England coach, I’d keep those guys out (in the field) for a long time.

“If Chris Rogers is out there for two days then has 10 minutes to strap on his pads and get his feet moving, could that work to England’s advantage?

“Brad Haddin is 38 this year, so test his fitness.

“The same with Michael Clarke, he’s had back problems; test him out and keep him in the field.

“Ryan Harris, it’s well documented he has a dodgy knee, so why wouldn’t you try to keep that guy on the ground bowling lots of spells?

“It’s just common sense. So I was asked a question and I’m not the sort of person who dodges them. I didn’t say anything that isn’t true.”

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