The Australian tour of Sri Lanka is underway. And like their last series, Australia will be trying out new spinners. After a grand total of 4 First-class matches, Lyon is the new wildcard entry in Cricket Australia’s reality show “Who wants to be Shane Warne?”. It would not be right to blame Australia’s situation on Warne especially since Australia held on to the No.1 Test ranking for 31 months after his retirement and almost all of the Australians that had dominated world cricket had retired by then. But as far as spin bowling was concerned, they had really gone down under (pun intended, please forgive me).
And having kept the numbers waiting for quite some time, we let them do the talking.
Ever since Warne retired, 6 specialist spinners (including Steve Smith here) made their debut for Australia and their stats are thus-
| Player |
Mtchs |
Wkts |
Avg. |
E.R. |
S.R. |
| Beau Casson |
1 |
3 |
43 |
4.03 |
64 |
| Jason Kreza |
2 |
13 |
43.23 |
4.53 |
57 |
| Bryce McGain |
1 |
0 |
- |
8.28 |
- |
| Steven Smith |
5 |
3 |
73.33 |
3.54 |
124 |
| Xavier Doherty |
2 |
3 |
102 |
4.03 |
151.6 |
| Michael Beer |
1 |
1 |
112 |
2.94 |
228 |
The newcomers on average took a wicket every 15 overs while conceding 64 runs at an economy rate of 4.2.
If we take every bowler who bowled spin for Australia since Warne’s retirement, we come across these stats-
| Player |
Mtchs |
Wkts |
Avg. |
E.R. |
S.R. |
| M Clarke |
42 |
13 |
53.38 |
2.88 |
111 |
| S MacGill |
4 |
10 |
65.1 |
3.8 |
102.6 |
| GB Hogg |
3 |
8 |
60.12 |
3.84 |
93.7 |
| S Katich |
33 |
9 |
25.44 |
3.61 |
42.2 |
| B Casson |
1 |
3 |
43 |
4.03 |
64 |
| C White |
4 |
5 |
68.4 |
3.67 |
111.6 |
| J Kreza |
2 |
13 |
43.23 |
4.53 |
57.1 |
| N Hauritz |
16 |
58 |
36.22 |
3.12 |
69.6 |
| MJ North |
21 |
14 |
42.21 |
2.81 |
89.8 |
| BE MCGain |
1 |
0 |
- |
8.27 |
- |
| Steven Smith |
5 |
3 |
73.33 |
3.54 |
124 |
| X Doherty |
2 |
3 |
102 |
4.03 |
151.6 |
| M Beer |
1 |
1 |
112 |
2.94 |
228 |
And overall, spin for Australia since Warne left has given us these figures-
| Mtchs |
Wkts |
Avg. |
E.R. |
S.R. |
| 43 |
140 |
46.9 |
3.41 |
82.5 |
For reference, Australian spin bowling in the last 4-1/2 years has been as effective in Test matches as Ajit Agarkar (Ave- 47.3, SR-83.7).
While the spin bowling has plumbed the depths, the pace bowling has not yet followed suit even though McGrath retired at the same time as Warne and it remains quite tolerable.
| Post McGrath Pace Bowling |
| Mtchs |
Wkts |
Avg. |
E.R. |
S.R. |
| 43 |
140 |
46.9 |
3.41 |
82.5 |
While the spinners are Agarkaresque, the pacers are playing with the career stats of James Anderson (Avg-30.5, SR-56).
And finally, while Warne was playing Stuart MacGill was waiting behind the scenes to take over the spin mantle but by the time Warne retired, MacGill was already 36, and played only 4 more matches before retiring. That meant that Australia had a pretty good backup when Warne was playing, not so much when he retired.
| |
Mtchs |
Wkts |
Avg. |
E.R. |
S.R. |
| Warne Era |
176 |
1067 |
27.03 |
2.74 |
59 |
| With Warne |
145 |
907 |
26.31 |
2.68 |
58.8 |
| Without Warne |
31 |
160 |
31.13 |
3.09
|
60.2 |
| Post Warne |
43 |
140 |
46.9 |
3.41 |
82.5 |
Australia, of course is not the only team to have a gaping hole after a great player retired. Their opponents, Sri Lanka have yet to win a Test since Murali, their greatest match-winner retired and they have yet to find his successor. And Murali’s influence can be shown in these stats.
| |
Mtchs |
Wkts |
Avg. |
E.R. |
S.R. |
| Murali Era |
155 |
1284 |
28.82 |
2.6 |
66.4 |
| With Murali |
132 |
1157 |
27.97 |
2.55 |
65.6 |
| Without Murali |
23 |
127 |
36.58 |
2.96
|
74.1 |
| Post Murali |
8 |
52 |
37.07 |
3.07 |
72.4 |
This series will be an interesting one as both sides will have spinners looking to make a name for themselves and to fill some big shoes.