Spin snubs will not be a long-term trend: Vettori

Spin legend Dan Vettori insists his craft will one day return to being a Test weapon in Australia as he defended the call for the Ashes hosts to pick an all-seam attack for the third time this series. 

With Nathan Lyon missing with injury, the Aussies neglected to pick a frontline spin bowler in a Sydney Test for the first time since 1888. The SCG, which once provided dry, dusty wickets spinners dream of bowling on, has increasingly favoured seamers over recent years.

"That's the thing. It's history – it's a long time ago," Australia assistant coach Vettori said of the ground where spinners have collectively averaged 53 in its past three Tests, and almost 60 when Lyon is taken out of that equation.

"You've seen over the last three years it's been diminishing results for spin bowlers here, which is obviously not something that we'd like, but it's the nature of the surface.

"Both teams saw it that way, that the spin bowler hasn't been effective in the last couple of years. So the assessment was around looking to use seamers, which have been highly successful for us during the Ashes."

It is hard to argue given Australia are 3-1 up in the series and their defeat in the two-day Melbourne Test was hardly down to leaving out a spinner.

With Todd Murphy overlooked again and England doing likewise with Shoaib Bashir for a fifth consecutive match, this Australian Test summer will finish with the fewest number of spin overs bowled.

Even if Will Jacks and Travis Head end up getting an extended run with the ball over the next four days, it is virtually guaranteed this campaign will have also seen the least spin in a five-Test Ashes series. Spinners have bowled only 130.3 overs so far.

But Vettori, the former orthodox bowler who 362 wickets in 113 Tests for New Zealand, stressed Australia's continued spin snubs do not mark the death of spin in Tests here.

Australia have played an all-seam attack four times in their last six Tests, two of those coming in pink-ball games when Lyon was available. The Aussies might in fact reflect on the two-day Perth Test and think they should have left him out there too given the star off-spinner bowled just two overs for the match.

"It's probably just a point in time," said Vettori. "I don't think it's going to be something that's going to continue on for years on end.

"I think spin bowling is incredibly important to Test match cricket. I think people love watching it when it's at its absolute best and when conditions can assist the spin bowler.

"But we're just in the stage now where that's not the case. I wouldn't be surprised that it changed in the future.

"I think at some stage it will get back to possibly how it was preceding these last couple of years."

Vettori pointed out the importance of spin when Australia tour the subcontinent, where they have gone even more spin-heavy in recent times.

Murphy has been part of three-spinner attacks in Sri Lanka earlier this year and in India back in 2023 during his debut series. The Victorian has overcome shoulder issues, as well ironing out a minor technical deficiency, over the past 12 months to be the frontrunner to be Lyon's long-term replacement.

He will have competition from the likes of Matthew Kuhnemann and Corey Rocchiccioli, while Cooper Connolly, a spinning allrounder, was picked over him for the second Test in Sri Lanka last year.

"You've seen with Todd through the A series and through his time with Victoria that he is bowling exceptionally well," Vettori said of the 25-year-old whose 10 Sheffield Shield scalps have come 23.10 this season.

"The last time he was with the team in Sri Lanka, when he was left out for that second Test match, he possibly wasn't at his best.

"But since then, I think he's got his shoulder right, he's been fully fit, and the bowler that presented in these last two games has been the bowler we first saw in India when he first came in on the scene.

"So I think he's ready, and he's bowling exceptionally well. It's just tough to see him getting into the game when these when these conditions tend to suit the seam bowling.

"I think in first class cricket, you probably don't get those long spells, and probably in first class cricket the surfaces don't suit either, so you don't get that opportunity.

"That's why the A tours and the overseas (Test) tours are so important.

"I think when that time comes, it will definitely be a chance of trying to get one of those guys – because there's a few knocking at the door – the opportunity to develop their craft and learn over long, hard days.

"Then when the when the opportunity presents, they'll be ready."

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: England won by four wickets

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10am AEDT

Australia squad (fifth Test): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue