Australia squad signals shift in India strategy

The selection of uncapped Mitchell Swepson in the 16-man squad for next month’s tour of India underscores a fundamental shift in strategy as Australia embraces a ‘spin to win’ game plan.

Swepson, who has played just 23 first-class matches, was named ahead of incumbent one-day international leg-spinner Adam Zampa as part of a potential six-man spin battery that dwarfs the three-man seam attack for India where Australia has won just one Test series in almost 50 years.

Quick Single: Australia name Test squad for India tour

Included alongside off-spinner Nathan Lyon, left-arm orthodox pair Steve O’Keefe and Ashton Agar as well as spin-bowling all-rounders Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith, Swepson’s selection emerged as the major talking point ahead of the four-Test Qantas Tour of India that begins in mid-February.

As much for the philosophy that underpins the squad as for the personnel it includes.

Squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Interim national selection panel chair Trevor Hohns confirmed the squad contains just three genuine quicks – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird – along with recalled seam-bowling allrounder Mitchell Marsh who been picked on the basis of what he offers with the ball rather than the bat.

Since Australia last won a Test series in India in 2004 – one of only two teams to triumph in cricket’s new heartland this century (along with England in 2012) – selectors have previously stuck to the nation’s traditional strengths.

That is a nucleus of fast-bowlers based on the premise that pace is the inherent weakness of India’s batters, with a scattering of spin options very much in the minority.

Quick Single: Hohns explains India Test squad decisions

The previous visit to India in 2013 that resulted in a disastrous 0-4 drubbing saw Xavier Doherty and Lyon as the only spin specialists.

The tour before that in 2010 it was off-spinner Nathan Hauritz and a surfeit of part-timers (including Smith), and in 2010 it was finger-spinner Jason Krezja flanked by battling all-rounders Cameron White and Simon Katich.

On all three of those tours, Australia sent a minimum of four fast bowlers -  sometimes five as was the case in in 2008 when Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Doug Bollinger were in the touring party.

Image Id: 5CD13E57AA684FD3821B63E233074961 Image Caption: Brett Lee appeals for the wicket of Virender Sehwag on Australia's '08 tour of India // Getty

With Australia failing to win a single Test on all three of those tours.

So as promised in the wake of last year’s failed visit to Sri Lanka, where the visitors were rolled 3-0 by a little-known home outfit, the battle plans have been rewritten with spin – as well as a strong work ethic – the new buzz words.

“We know it’s very difficult over there (in India), no country in the last 10 years has performed all that well over there or succeeded,” Hohns said in Melbourne today.

“Somehow, some way, someone has to turn the tide and we’re hoping we can do that.

“We’ve chosen a squad that we believe will work really hard and that’s a must for these boys, and they know they need to work hard over there.

“Mitchell Swepson has come through the pathways system, he is an exciting young leg spinner who gives the ball a very good rip.

“He’s a wicket-taking leg spinner and at the end of the day you’ve got to take wickets to win Test matches.

“Given the opportunity we feel that he could play a part over there, and if he doesn’t he’ll gain a lot from the experience of being there.”

Quick Single: Swepson stakes his claim in 'A' series

Swepson was introduced to the Test set-up in Sri Lanka last year when he was part of the National Performance Squad – along with current Test opener Matthew Renshaw – that had played several matches in the Indian coastal city of Chennai before helping the Australia squad in Colombo prepare for their upcoming Test campaign.

Asked why the 23-year-old, who has played 10 Sheffield Shield matches for Queensland since debuting last summer and has taken 27 wickets at just below 40, was named ahead of the more experienced Zampa, Hohns revealed more of the Australians’ thinking.

“When we decided to take four (specialist) spinners and we thought a leg spinner might be handy over there – and whether they play or not is in in the lap of the gods at the moment – we thought we could go for a more attacking leg spinner more so than a defensive spinner,” Hohns said.

“That’s no disrespect to Adam, he’s going well as well.”

In the past two years, during which time India has surged to the top of the Test team rankings and proved virtually unassailable on home soil, the most successful touring bowlers have been attacking leg spinners.

England’s Adil Rashid (23 wickets at 37 from five Tests late last year), before India’s batters targeted him in the final Test, and South Africa’s Imran Tahir (14 wickets at 21 from four matches in 2015).

While Hohns concedes that the pitch conditions that await in Pune, Bangalore, Ranchi and Dharamsala remain unknown, the squad contains sufficient flexibility for most contingencies.

Should the surface dictate a two-seamers, two-spinners attack then Mitchell Marsh – deemed a better bowling option than fellow allrounder Hilton Cartwright who played his maiden Test earlier this month - will fill the bowling allrounder berth.

Lyon and O’Keefe will be the front line spinners, with the taller Agar offering a point of difference between the two left-armers should a venue look to offer additional bounce.

If it’s a raging turner then Agar or Maxwell can be utilised in the allrounder’s role and Swepson could also come into calculations, and if – and stranger things have transpired on the sub-continent – a green seamer suddenly manifests then Australia have the options of all three quicks.

With Hohns reserving the right to add further fast bowlers to the squad should the need arise.

But for now, he has put the acid on several players within the squad that features just six proven Test batters, with Shaun Marsh added to the top five that have carried Australia to four consecutive victories over South Africa and Pakistan.

Hohns indicated that Renshaw, who posted a career-high 184 in the most recent Test against Pakistan at the SCG, will begin the tour as favourite to open alongside David Warner pending results of the pre-Test tour matches.

And he has backed number three batter Usman Khawaja who returned to form in Australia after struggling against spin bowling in Sri Lanka where he was dropped after being dismissed twice in a day in similar circumstances during a forgettable second Test at Galle.

“We see Usman as one of our best five or six batsmen, so he’s included because of that and we would expect Usman to do everything he possibly can to improve his play,” Hohns said today.

“He wasn’t great in Sri Lanka, and he knows that and understands that, so we want to see him improve his play in those conditions against spin bowling.

“He’s one of our best batsmen so there’s no reason why he can’t do the job.”

Hohns also threw his support behind Lyon who found himself under close scrutiny as Australia suffered heavy defeats to South Africa early in the summer, only to perform strongly in the series against a Pakistan batting line-up so adept at handling spin.

“He (Lyon) did go a through a period of time when he, and even by his own admission, wasn’t bowling that well,” Hohns said today.

“But to see him bowl in Melbourne and then back that up in Sydney, we don’t have any great concerns about his bowling at the moment.”