Lack of leg-spinners in Australia worrying: Ian Chappell

Sydney: Former Australia cricketer Ian Chappell believes the captain is partly responsible for the lack of leg-spin options in the current Test team. He said that captains are yet to understand how wrist-spin bowling works in the longest format of cricket. In the last 10 years, off-spinner Nathan Lyon has led Australia’s spin attack in Tests. But his injury during the second Ashes Test saw Australia use young off-spinner Todd Murphy in two of the remaining three matches. This left Australia in trouble and England came back from 2–0 down to finish the series 2–2.

“Ever since Shane Warne and Stuart McGill retired from Tests in 2007 and 2008 respectively, Australia haven’t had a single quality leg-spinner who has managed to become a regular in the Test team,” Chappell said. I don’t know whether it is just the lack of wrist spin bowling or the lack of will on the part of the captains to give him a chance.

‘I don’t think the captains have understood wrist spin bowling as well as they should have. In my opinion, the shortcoming of some captains is that they want to save boundaries. What is better, conceding a few boundaries or conceding six easy singles in one over?’ You cannot give easy singles to a good batsman, especially at the start of his innings, you have to try to get him out. There are a lot of places where I feel the wrist spinner would do well, but nothing like that at the moment. It’s been very disappointing.

The thing about bowling wrist spin is that you have to have a lot of them to get a good bowling spell. New South Wales used to be the home of wrist spin bowling, I remember playing against NSW teams. There was a string of wrist spinners coming from NSW, and it hasn’t happened recently. In the current Australian Test team, both Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne provide wrist spin options for skipper Pat Cummins. Chappell feels that Labushen should get more chances with the ball.