Swepson dreaming of a Baggy Green

Young leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson is daring to dream of a Test debut in Bangladesh after a long-awaited chat with the greatest leg-spinner of all time earlier this year.

Swepson was on Saturday added to a 14-man squad for the two-Test series starting later this month, the third spinner in the touring party alongside frontline tweaker Nathan Lyon and left-armer Ashton Agar.

The 23-year-old was unable to force his way into the Test XI on his maiden Test tour in India earlier this year as he and Agar took a back seat while Lyon and Steve O'Keefe led the spin attack in all four Tests.

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But with O'Keefe a shock axing from the Bangladesh squad, a decision Swepson concedes came as a surprise to him, a maiden Test cap appears far more likely in Bangladesh than it did in the Border-Gavaskar series.

"Obviously I'm the last one added to the squad so I'd think that the other two spinners are most likely to get a go ahead of me," Swepson told cricket.com.au.

"But you never know what can happen and what the pitches are going to be like. It's all up to the selection panel and the skipper and the coach in which way they want to go.

"I've got to go over there prepared to play a Test match. Whether that happens or not is another thing.

"If it doesn't happen, I'll just be a sponge and soak it all up and take that experience away with me."

Image Id: DDC55F9AB58047F99C11B527174D4046 Image Caption: Swepson bowls in the nets during the tour of India // Getty

A major hurdle for Swepson should he debut would be a noticeable lack of match action in recent months; he hasn't played any cricket at all since a KFC BBL match on January 25 and his last first-class game came in early December last year.

The abandonment of the Australia A tour to South Africa due to the recent contract dispute cost Swepson some valuable time in the middle and means he and his A teammates Agar, Usman Khawaja, Jackson Bird and Hilton Cartwright will all head to Bangladesh having not played any cricket since last summer.

But with a week-long pre-tour camp in Darwin next week, including a three-day intra-squad practice match, Swepson is unconcerned by the lack of match action.

"It's been a little bit frustrating, but at the same time it's not as if I haven't had a cricket ball in my hand and haven't been doing the work," he said.

"I'm confident that with the work I've done at the end of last season and the start of this pre-season, if I was to get the call-up, even though it's been a long-time, I'd be ready to go."

A highlight of the India tour for Swepson came during the first Test in Pune when he spent time with Shane Warne, the legendary spinner who is an unabashed fan of the young Queenslander.

Warne had publicly called for Swepson's selection in both the Test squad and the XI, a fact not lost on the youngster who’d joked he would have to buy the 47-year-old a beer to thank him for so enthusiastically pushing his case.

And he was sure to soak up every last drop of information when granted his first ever meeting with the game's most prolific leg-spinner, who was in India on commentary duty.

"I didn't get much of a word in, he could talk all day about leg-spin bowling," Swepson said of the 15-minute chat with Warne.

"He gave me a few tips on my action, but it was more about the mentality of bowling, body language and things like that.

"And I asked him a couple of questions about bowling at home and he was really good. He gave up a lot of advice so it was really good to finally chat to him."

And given Swepson was unable to fulfil his pre-tour pledge of a thank you ale, the two leg-spinners are sure to meet again soon, possibly after the protégée has pulled on Baggy Green cap No.451.

"I thanked him very much for (his support), but I didn't get a chance to have a beer with him," Swepson said.

"So I'll have to get a rain check on that one."

Australia in Bangladesh 2017

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Mitch Swepson, Matthew Wade.

Bangladesh squad (preliminary): Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mahmudullah Riyad, Liton Kumar Das, Mominul Haque, Mehedi Hasan, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Subhashish Roy, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Rubel Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Sanjamul Islam, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat, Mohammad Saifuddin, Anamul Haque, Abul Hasan Raju, Al Amin Hossain, Nasir Hossain, Muktar Ali, Tanbir Haider, Saqlain Sajib, Shafiul Islam.

11-17 August Australia pre-tour training camp, Darwin

18 August Australia arrive

22-23 August Tour match,Fatullah

27-31 August First Test, Dhaka

4-8 September Second Test, Chittagong