The team with no spinner should lose

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< 1 minute read

Always play a spinner. Always.

Always, always, always.

It offers variety; a change of pace that might unsettle the batsman. Maybe the odd ball will turn more than you think.

Or maybe – just maybe – a batsman who’s untroubled by pace will, for some inexplicable reason, be totally unable to play spin on that given day. He only needs to get one ball wrong, after all.

You should play a spinner every time. Our greatest fear is England ending up looking a bit fast-medium.

Test cricket is about having players for all sorts of different conditions. It’s about anticipating how conditions will change as the match wears on.

Half the point of Test cricket is that you can have a guy standing around for three and a half days who then comes in and wins you the match. Not picking a spinner says spin bowling has no major part to play in the game. For that, you should be spun out and your fast bowlers should be worn into the ground.

Test cricket is broad, varied and rich and anything that goes against that is sacrilege.

DON'T BE LIKE GATT!

Mike Gatting wasn't receiving the King Cricket email when he dropped that ludicrously easy chance against India in 1993.

Coincidence?

Why risk it when it's so easy to sign up?

4 comments

  1. I have a feeling, Australia picked the best team that could draw the game. Allow England to bat long enough to allow them a draw. But with England scoring only 330 odd, and with Broad on a roll….Australia must surely sense the Ashes slipping out of their grasp. I say England wins big…. by Day 4

  2. From listening to Warney today, I think he would agree with you KC.

    Golandaaz – could you make it Day 5 please, as that’s when I have tickets for. And to see The Australian sit amongst the Barmy Army watching Australia lose would quite simply be priceless.

  3. And what were you thinking…buying Day 5 tickets….Look its 8 down already. Can’t see this going beyond Day 4. Sorry Mate 🙁

  4. They were cheap. And the only ones I could get by the time I got my arse into gear to buy.

    On an entirely different note, having just witnessed the Comedey of Errors that is Ponting getting run out, closely followed by Clarke’s brief appearance, The Australian has decided that now is the ideal time to put up the new bathroom shelf that has been there all week waiting to be done…

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