Don't rule out spin trinity in India: Hussey

Former Test batsman Michael Hussey has urged Australia’s selectors not to dismiss the previously untried option of employing three specialist spinners against India as a means of trying to overturn the team’s wretched recent form in Asia.

Hussey, whose average of 63.05 in Tests played in Asia remains the highest of any Australian batters to have played five Tests or more in those most challenging conditions, believes the option of using a trio of tweakers and just two front-line fast bowlers may offer some merit.

The National Selection Panel, headed by interim chair Trevor Hohns who also oversaw the panel in 2004 when Australia last won a Test series in India, has loaded up on spinners for the four-Test Qantas Tour that begins next month.

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With incumbent pair Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe joined in the 16-man squad by left-arm orthodox spinner Ashton Agar and uncapped leg spinner Mitchell Swepson, as well as competent part-timers Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell.

But Australia has historically been reluctant to engage a predominantly spin attack in India, essentially because India’s batters are so familiar with the art and handle it so adroitly.

And due to the belief, that proved correct in 2004 when pace pair Jason Gillespie (20 wickets at 16.15) and Glenn McGrath (14 at 25.42) accounted for half of the Indian batters to be dismissed across the four Tests.

Image Id: 5EB4F1DA15B045AB9BF0BC42E9A8A517 Image Caption: Australia's 2004 pace brigade of Gillespie, McGrath and Michael Kasprowicz with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy // Getty

The closest Australia has come to rolling out three specialist spinners in India was on their previous tour in 2013, for the infamous ‘homework’ Test at Mohali where Lyon and Xavier Doherty played alongside Smith, then considered more a bowling all-rounder.

The only times it’s formally happened over the past two decades was in the second Test against Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2006, when Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and off-spinner Dan Cullen were employed mainly because of the huge workload undertaken by the quicks across the Australian summer and gruelling South Africa tour immediately prior.

And the last occasion Australia played a Test in Pakistan (Karachi, 1998) when spin pair MacGill and Gavin Robertson were supplemented by Colin Miller, who bowled pace when the ball was new before switching to off-spin as it got older.

Image Id: 4D7F3004B6144A409B15E59A1AB93130 Image Caption: MacGill appeals on Australia's '98 tour of Pakistan // Getty

However, Hussey believes that the unconventional (as far as Australia’s selection history stands) ploy might be worth considering in light of the fact the Test team has won just one match in Asia over the past decade.

And has not won a solitary Test in India since that triumphant 2004 campaign.

“I think we've got to adapt to the conditions and I think the squad is nicely balanced for that,” Hussey told cricket.com.au in a recent one-on-one interview.

“We've got the option of playing three spinners if we want to. and we've got left-arm orthodox (O’Keefe and Agar), we’ve got right arm orthodox (Lyon) and we've got wrist spin (Swepson) so we've got all the bases covered. 

“I'm sure India will try and get the pitches to turn. That's where they're at their best and that's where we've struggled in the past. 

“There's no question there's going to be turning tracks so we have to be ready for that both from a batting point of view and team selection.”

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One of the concerns aired in discussions about the three-spinner option would be the impact on the batting if Swepson (who boasts a first-class batting average of 11.40) was to provide a point of difference with his wrist spin.

That would mean five tailenders with keeper Matthew Wade, who has struggled for Test runs of late, elevated to number six, while the inclusion of a spin-bowling all-rounder (Agar or Maxwell) would duplicate the finger spin option already provided by Lyon and O’Keefe.

The potential solution might be playing seam-bowling all-rounder Mitchell Marsh as one of two front-line quicks, but Hussey believes that might be a tough call to justify.

“That's a good option to have (but) it would be a tough call on either Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood, who are two absolute guns,” Hussey said.

“But we need to pick the best team that'll give you the best chance of winning in the conditions. 

“It's something they'll definitely consider and it offers a lot of balance to the team as well.

“O'Keefe and Lyon will be the first two spinners, but it gives you the option of playing Agar or Swepson and seeing what the best chance of taking 20 wickets is.”

While the configuration of Australia’s bowling attack remains something of an unknown, there is no such mystery as to where the threat to the touring batters resides.

India’s spin pair Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were largely responsible for their team’s 4-0 humbling of England in the five-Test series played on the sub-continent late last year, sharing a remarkable 54 wickets between them.

Off-spinner Ashwin finishing the campaign with 28 at 30.25 while left-arm orthodox Jadeja collected 26 at an even more parsimonious 25.85 while the next-best performed India bowler – seamer Mohammed Shami – ended the series with 10.

As Hussey points out, the underlying strength of the home team’s spinners is not so much a myriad of tricks they are able to impart on the ball but rather their capacity to intuitively understand and relentlessly exploit the conditions.

Which is where Australia came spectacularly undone during last year’s 0-3 away loss to Sri Lanka, where batters were regularly exposed playing for spin that wasn’t there and failing to read the subtle variations out of the bowler’s hand and off the dry, bare surface.

“Their main strength is their discipline,” Hussey said.

“They get the ball in the right areas all the time, much like (Sri Lanka’s veteran left-arm spinner Rangana) Herath. 

“The thing about India and Sri Lanka is the pitches aren't true pitches. 

“In Australia, once you get in you know how the pitch is going to react – the pitches are quite true with their pace and bounce.

“In India, one ball might spin and one might skid.

“One stays low, one will kick.

“You never really feel set in those conditions so the Indian spinners, all they do is try and get the ball in the right spot and let the natural variation of the pitch take control.

“And that's what they're very good at, they don't try and do too much. 

“Ashwin has got a few more tricks and a few different deliveries, but generally speaking they just try and bowl dot ball after dot ball and build up the pressure that way.”

Recognising the threat, as Hussey notes, is but one skill.

Negotiating it, even nullifying it is quite another and one that requires self-belief as well as self-awareness.

“You need to have a good solid defence and to back it,” He said.

“But also, you need to have the ability to get off strike. 

“If they can just bowl ball after ball at you, something's going to happen. 

“One ball is going to explode out of nowhere and react differently off the pitch, but if you can rotate the strike, push the singles, get the bowlers bowling at different batsmen all the time, they can't get into a rhythm against a certain player.

“So I think that's really important, to remain positive and rotate the strike if you can.”

And while Ashwin and Jadeja will be called on to do a bulk of the work, and be expected to take a lion’s share of the wickets the threat from India’s seamers cannot be glossed over.

As England learned, with Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma each making a decisive early strike with the new ball in England’s four thumping, consecutive Test losses.

Then posing an equal or greater menace when the ball became older.

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“They're a big threat, particularly with the old ball,” Hussey said.

“They're very, very good exponents of reverse swing so I'm sure they're going to work hard to get that ball rough and to get it to go reverse. 

“It's difficult to start (an innings) in India. 

“If you're a middle order player you're quite often coming in and it's spinning big, or the quicks are bowling and it's reversing big. 

“So your first 10 to 20 balls can be really, really challenging but if you can get through that, you can prosper with some runs.”