Beware of WT20 spin obsession, says Mahela

Focusing solely on spin could spell disaster for Australia at the World T20 according to Sri Lanka legend Mahela Jayawardena.

While national selector Trevor Hohns has indicated Australia would need a "couple of spinners" for the World T20 in India in March, Jayawardena says the high standard of pitches in the subcontinent could nullify the supposed threat of spin bowling.

"A lot of people do emphasise on spin but if you get good wickets it's not that bad," Jayawardena said after scoring 57 in the Adelaide Strikers' 36-run win over Perth Scorchers.

"The quick bowlers also have a lot of good variations going into the subcontinent conditions so you need to handle all that overall, not just put an emphasis on spin.

"If you get a good ball you play it the way it is and if you get a bad ball you take it on.

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"The quicks will have a lot of variations so you will need to adapt your game plan and assess the conditions – that's quite important.

"And you get smaller grounds as well … so it's about keeping your shape and playing your shots."

While that might come as good news to Australia’s selectors, they will be unable to pick three of their frontline fast bowlers for the biannual competition.

Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Coulter-Nile are all unavailable through injury, putting strain on the deep yet inexperienced pool of pacemen.

This could mean, against Jayawardena’s warning, Australia could rely on spin as Hohns has stated.

Two spinners will likely be included in the sqaud, along with off-spinning allrounder Glenn Maxwell.

Hobart Hurricanes leg-spinner Cameron Boyce is the incumbent T20 tweaker, and with 10 wickets in five matches is the joint-leading wicket-taker in the KFC Big Bash League this summer.

With Boyce an almost certainty, it leaves just one spot remaining for a number of candidates, including Test spinner Nathan Lyon, who has made it known his desire to represent Australia in all three formats.

It was T20 cricket that gave Lyon a start in domestic cricket, but in the five years since his debut for the West End Redbacks, the offie has played 51 Test matches and no 20-over cricket for his country.

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But his 20-over form is strong, taking five wickets against Boyce's Hurricanes for the Sydney Sixers at the SCG last month.

Another contender is the Scorchers Ashton Agar. While Agar was overlooked for the one-day international squad for the first three VB ODI Series matches, no specialist spinner was chosen for matches on the pace-friendly pitches of Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne. The left-armer was, however, the front-line spinner chosen for Australia's 50-over series in England last September.

Agar spins it the other way to Maxwell, is a panther in the field and has improved his batting to the point where has scored two first-class centuries for Western Australia this season and bats at No.4 for the Scorchers.

Adam Zampa, Jon Holland, Xavier Doherty and veteran Brad Hogg are also in the mix, but Jayawardena says it's difficult to rate Australia's spin stocks on wickets that will show no resemblance to those faced in India.

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"The conditions are going to be quite different so it's quite hard to judge the way you play spin here and how you're going to play it in the subcontinent," he said.

"Once you go out there you need to be fearless and play good cricket shots and back yourself to do that.

"Obviously in a World Cup you will get good wickets, you won't get really bad wickets, you'll get good wickets so you just have to be patient and control situations."

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