Adam Zampa harbours hopes of a Test spot
Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa has expressed his desire to play Test cricket but believes he has a lot of work to do before he can be an accomplished player.
During the recently concluded Test series against Sri Lanka, many believed that the young leggie should have been included in the team when Stephen O'Keefe got injured. However, Jon Holland received the nod, but he did not look too impressive in the two matches.
Zampa has been in decent form with the white ball after he impressed in the World T20 and then the Indian Premier League. He followed it up with another respectable outing during the Tri-series in West Indies. Also, he was the leading wicket-taker among spinners during the recent Caribbean Premier League, in which he claimed 15 victims at 18.46 for the Guyana Amazon Warriors. He has displayed good control with his variations and lands the ball in wicket-taking areas. This augurs well for him in the longest format.
However, Zampa's record in First class cricket is not very impressive and this could be a big factor in his non-selection. In 22 first class matches, the South Australian has picked up 53 wickets and his average is in excess of 50. These figures are not very impressive and the young man is keen to work on it.
"I've only played four first-class games in the last 12 months or so, so it would be nice to get some red ball cricket under my belt," he said. "But I just want to keep improving and I feel like the bowler I have improved as a bowler in the last 12 months or 18 months ago."
The young leg-spinner has generally done well in conditions which are sluggish and offer assistance to spinners. This is good news for Australia as they will tour India next year where the pitches will offer genuine assistance. After the embarrassing defeat to Sri Lanka, Australia are considering a triad of spinners for next year's tour to India, and this then means that the likes of Adam Zampa, Fawad Ahmed, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson will come into contention.
The Australian management has decided to take few radical steps before the team departs for India, and many new players and combinations could be tried.