Spin twins hope to turn ODI fortunes

Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon could be Australia's latest spin twins as the defending World Cup champions search for a winning formula in one-day cricket.

Australia have traditionally played just the one specialist spinner, if at all, in their line-up away from the spin-friendly conditions found in Asia, but Zampa believes he and Lyon could work in tandem and spin Australia to success.

"The other countries around the world the last couple of years that have had success in one-day cricket have either definitely played one specialist spinner if not two," Zampa told reporters in Sydney today. 

"It's going to be nice to have (Lyon) to work with. 

"Hopefully we get the opportunity to play together because I think moving forward we can be an asset to us going into the World Cup."

Both Zampa and Lyon have been in and out of Australia's ODI team in the past 12 months, with Western Australia's spinning-allournder Ashton Agar a regular resident in the 50-over team.

But with no Agar in the squad, the spinning duties fall to Zampa, Lyon and allrounder Glenn Maxwell.

World No.1 ODI side England have employed the services of dual spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, while the No.2 side, India, have four spinners in their squad to face Australia – Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Kedar Jadhav and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Zampa played for Essex in England's domestic T20 competition last year and said playing two spinners could be a smart move in the World Cup.

"I found that the conditions definitely did suit (spin)," he said.

"I played on some pretty small outer grounds, it's pretty hard to compare it to what we'll be playing on in the World Cup. 

"As the tournament goes on, I've never been part of the World Cup, but you'd assume once the tournament goes on the wickets will get tired. 

"So hopefully it does suit the spinners."

Head coach Justin Langer said there "might be opportunities" for Zampa and Lyon to bowl in tandem ahead of the World Cup, with limited-overs tours to India and the UAE set to follow the Australian summer. 

And it could happen in Australia in the Gillette ODI Series against India now that seam-bowling allrounder Mitch Marsh has been ruled out of the series opener in Sydney with a gastro bug.

"There’s no reason why not," Langer said when asked if Lyon and Zampa could play in the same XI.

"A lot of the teams around the world are doing it. There’s no doubt India will do it against us. 

"It's something we’ll have a look at. 

"It would be good to have a leg-spinner, an off-spinner – Glenn Maxwell bowls off-spin as well. We’ll have some good combinations there."     

Australia have just won three of their past 21 completed one-day internationals and sit sixth in official ICC ODI team rankings.

But Zampa doesn't believe Australia are too far behind their competitors less than six months out from the World Cup. 

"The results say we've won 3 out of the last (24) games or something like that but we did have a meeting as a team yesterday and it's just about the little things that we need to tinker; the way we start with the ball, how we bat through the first 20 overs," Zampa said.

"We've tended to have lost a few wickets over that time and the stats compared to the India stats, they match up pretty similarly to theirs and they're one of the best teams in the world at the moment. 

"So if we can just tinker with a few things we're probably not too far away to be honest."

Gillette ODI Series v India

Australia ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Peter Siddle, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa

India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

First ODI: January 12, SCG (D/N)

Second ODI: January 15, Adelaide Oval (D/N)

Third ODI: January 18, MCG (D/N)