Follow UsWith the Pink Ball Test scheduled to begin on December 4 (Thursday), England are in a limbo to choose one from the two available spin-bowling options for them i.e. Shoaib Bashir and Will Jacks. Mark Wood has been ruled out already and thus a spot has opened up naturally to play a spinner.
In Pink Ball Tests, Nathan Lyon, the Australian spinner, has had quite a bit of success, picking up 43 wickets at an average of 25.62 in 13 Day-Night Tests. However, on the contrary, barring India’s Ravichandran Ashwin, overseas spinners have struggled big time.
If we minus Ashwin’s six wickets at an average of 20.66, the cumulative average for foreign spinners in those same 13 games played in Australia, will shoot up from the present 64.03. Overall, visiting spinners have picked up only 28 wickets.
Alongside Ashwin, another spin-bowling success has been West Indies’ Kevin Sinclair, who picked only one wicket, but with the bat, scored a vital fifty in the first innings. However, the one wicket that he picked up was that of well-set Usman Khawaja.
Now, England have both options. They can either go the Ashwin way by picking Bashir to try and get the desired result with a win or be a bit more proactive by bringing in Jacks, who can score vital runs with the bat.