The rise and rise of Mitchell Swepson

The moment Usman Khawaja realised Mitchell Swepson might just about be ready for Test cricket came when the leg-spinner could not even crack Queensland's best XI.

Last summer, as the Bulls looked to atone for finishing bottom of the domestic 50-over standings in 2018, Swepson (who had averaged 54 and conceded more than seven runs per over in that 2018 one-day tournament) found himself relegated to net bowler.

Two green Gabba pitches then saw his omission from Queensland's team sheet extended to four-day cricket as the state fielded an all-pace attack for their first two Marsh Sheffield Shield games.

But as Swepson bowled and bowled in practice, Khawaja recognised they were overlooking a special talent.

"I was facing him in the nets and just seeing how well he was bowling, and I'm like, 'This is just coming out really nicely'," the Bulls captain told cricket.com.au.

Fast forward to Monday when Swepson took 10-171 in the Bulls' narrow one-wicket defeat to New South Wales, the best figures by a Queensland spinner in 41 years, and Khawaja's hunch has been more than justified.

After two games the 27-year-old sits atop this season's Sheffield Shield wicket taking charts with 15 scalps at 20.33. His economy rate is a miserly 2.45 after taking five wickets in their tense season-opening win over Tasmania earlier this month.

Khawaja is now not only certain his side possesses Nathan Lyon's Test back-up in waiting, but the country's best wrist-spinner since Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill.

"I believe he's only behind 'Gaz' (Lyon) as the second-best spinner in the country," Khawaja said of Swepson, who finished the last Shield season behind only Lyon and the now retired Steve O'Keefe among spinners on the leading wickets list.

"All the pressure that's been put on him, he's always come up. He's had pressure for us coming into these last two games and he's won us games at the back end. And he's helped win us games in the front end.

"He's going at sometimes less than two (runs per over) – that's unbelievable. He just doesn't give them anything.

"For him to have so much control bowling leggies – I didn't play against Warnie – but from what I've seen from leg-spinners after Warnie and Stuey MacGill, he's the best I've seen."

Watching on from the slick new Karen Rolton Oval pavilion on Monday, Trevor Hohns had two reasons to smile as he watched Swepson's masterful haul that very nearly easily clinched a tight tussle against the Bulls' traditional rivals.

The first is sentimental; Hohns himself had been the most recent Queensland spinner to take a 10-for in a Sheffield Shield match.

The wrist-spinner's haul of 11-116 at the SCG in January 1979, having previously regarded himself as a part-timer with only 17 wickets from his first 18 Shield matches and no more than three in an innings, proved something of a breakout performance. A decade later he helped Australia regain the Ashes as the squad's designated spinner on their 1989 tour.

Image Id: C5E89BAD7F094665B7C7550976AB8AF8 Image Caption: Trevor Hohns bowls at Lord's in the '89 Ashes // Getty

The second reason is more obvious in his current guise as the country's head men's selector, with the question of who Lyon's long-term Test successor will be still up for debate.

Khawaja is adamant it is Swepson, who has singled out his state captain as a key influence on his increased confidence.

"It's just good to be getting lots of overs, that always helps, just bowling more," said Swepson, who is hopeful of winning a berth in the Australia A side to play India ahead of their four Tests against Australia.

"'Uzzie' has great confidence in my bowling at the moment, it's great that he's throwing me the ball nice and early and giving me lots of overs and some long spells.

"That's really helped my confidence as well. The ball is just coming out a lot better than it was a while back, so that's where the confidence has come from.

"Having a captain that trusts you definitely helps that. Uzzie has been great, particularly this season in the first couple of games."

Khawaja insists it was Swepson who instilled the confidence in him, not the other way around.

"I set attacking fields and I say to him, 'If you get hit for four, it doesn't bother me' because I know 99 out of 100 balls he's going to land them where he wants to land them," said Khawaja.

"If one doesn't come out right it doesn't bother me at all. That's the confidence he gives to me, rather than what I give to him.

"I've seen how he bowls in the nets, I've seen the way he bowls in the games – I've even played him in club cricket this year. So to see that, straightaway he's got my confidence."

Warne said the Gabba was his favourite cricket ground in the world – "If it seams, it spins" a favourite catchcry – but it is hard to find another slow bowler who agrees with him.

Swepson has understandably been delighted with the shift of the competition to Adelaide where pitches have been flatter than grounds like the Gabba and the WACA.

As was rammed home to him last season as he sent down over after over in the nets to the likes of Khawaja, it has become increasingly difficult for Queensland spinners to make their mark with home games played on seam-friendly Gabba wickets before Christmas and then with swing-friendly Dukes balls used after Christmas.

Adding to that is the fact Queensland no longer play regular Shield games through December and January, when oppressive temperatures dictate the need for spin bowling, due to the KFC BBL.

The decision by Cricket Australia to end their experiment with the Dukes balls for now is one blessing for a spinner aspiring to wear the maroon cap in his home state.

And as for Queensland's early-season conundrum of whether to pick a spinner at the Gabba, Khawaja has flagged a fresh outlook.

"We have just said, 'Well, he's our best spinner. Does Australia play their best spinner every game? Yes, they play Nathan Lyon so why aren't we playing our best spinner?'" said Khawaja.

"We made the decision that if we play at the Gabba, Mitchell Swepson is going to play.

"When he did bowl at the Gabba (in recent seasons), he bowled like a genius.

"If you can bowl like that at the Gabba, one of the hardest places in the world to bowl spin, he can bowl anywhere."