Shane Warne expresses his concern over the lack of quality spinners in Australia
Australia’s legendary leg-spinner, Shane Warne, feels that the Australian side has a ‘real issue’ in the spin-bowling department. According to Warne, there is no other spinner apart from Nathan Lyon who can lead the Australian spin bowling unit.
The Tim Paine-led team did not have a proper secondary spin-bowling option in their squad for Ashes 2019 as they had to pick Marnus Labuschagne as their second spinner. Though the team management had the option to pick the inexperienced Jon Holland in the playing XI, they ignored him. While Labuschagne troubled the English batsmen with his leg-spin, the team cannot back him to lead the spin bowling department in Lyon’s absence.
During the Fox Cricket launch, Warne said,
"Luckily we have such a quality spinner in Lyon, he's done so well in all conditions around the world, held that attack together, but if something happened to him it would be a real issue. It's important for Australia - I'm not saying Lyon is retiring or anything, he's got a lot more in him - that if something does happen for Australia that someone could set up."
The Australian team can opt to include domestic stars Ashton Agar, Mitch Swepson or Steve O' Keefe in the Test squad but Warne feels that they do not have enough experience to lead the Australian spin department. He urged the board to work in this direction by having at least one spinner in every state team. The veteran leg-spinner added,
"They should always pick a spinner, it's disappointing if sides are not picking spinners regardless of conditions we should be encouraging spinners in all forms because they'll learn how to bowl in different conditions. The job of Sheffield Shield sides is to make sure you are producing international cricketers, it's not just looking after your own state. You have to make sure Australian cricket is strong and they should be picking spinners."
It will be interesting to see how the Australian team officials react to Warne's statements because they seriously do not have a back-up for Nathan Lyon
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