Australia should play three spinners in the same XI during their eight-Test tour in Asia next year, according to Steve O’Keefe. The left-arm spinner, who retired from first class cricket in April last year, said that keeping the fast bowlers front and centre of the bowling attack in the subcontinent may not work due to the heat and conditions.
“In the past, we’ve generally gone, ‘we’ll play what’s best for us, which is three fast bowlers’. But I think it’s so hard in that heat and those conditions for those guys to have success,” he further said.
O’Keefe, who took a match-winning haul of 14 wickets during the first Test of Australia’s 2017 tour of India, said Mitchell Swepson and Ashton Agar are both ready to support frontline spinner Nathan Lyon in the subcontinent. Additionally, Agar’s batting ability can allow selectors to pick all three in the same side.
“But the beauty of playing Nathan Lyon with Ashton Agar or if you went with all three, Nathan is an attacking, over-the-top spin bowler who can be aggressive, then someone like Ashton could really control (the game) and bring the run rate down to two or three an over.
“When you look at the Indian spinners (Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja) bowling well, that’s genuinely how they work one will contain and one will be the wicket-taker. So I think it’s important for those guys to get some opportunities to bowl together, whether that’s in some lead-up games for Aussie A or tour games over there, to get the synergy right of bowling together. I think they’ll have success,” he said.
