OPINION
Follow UsAfter being on the fringes for five years, Mitchell Swepson has made his Test debut in Karachi. It was in 2017, a 23-year-old leg-spinner was named in the Australia Test squad for the tour of India. Since then, he has been included for the tours of Bangladesh, South Africa, home series against India, and also the Ashes.
With Nathan Lyon Australia’s primary spinner, Swepson playing alongside him was never going to be an option. However, even on away tours, where tracks were conducive to spin, Swepson was overlooked in favour of Jon Holland, Steve O’Keefe or even Ashton Agar, who could add value with the bat down the order.
It was long overdue, but it finally happened. He became the 464th player to represent Australia in Tests. At the back of Shane Warne’s death, who had mentored Swepson, this came as a bittersweet moment for the 28-year-old.
"I think it is quite special that someone like Mitchell Swepson is going to debut tomorrow as a leg spinner who grew up trying to replicate Warnie,” Pat Cummins said ahead of the Karachi Test.
It’s no secret that Australia have failed to unearth a spinner who is in the same league as Lyon and there is a yawning gap between the off-spinner and the rest of the spinners.
Since Lyon’s debut in 2011, only Ravichandran Ashwin (438) has picked up more wickets than him (416) –further proof that Lyon is among the world’s best and why Australia have persisted with him over the last decade.
Even in the subcontinent, Lyon has very rarely been overshadowed by his teammates, be it pacers or spinners, having picked up 96 wickets at 33.70 while it is Mitchell Starc with 37 wickets at 30.64 well behind in second.
Why have Australia struggled to find quality spinners?
It was the late Shane Warne who initially had reservations over the drop-in pitches, saying that it would further deplete Australia’s spin department. He had called for all teams to compulsorily have at least one specialist spinner in the XI.
“Once upon a time, every state had completely different conditions. Now, there’s a lot of drop-in pitches – Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth is now a drop-in pitch in the new stadium. We’ve got to be careful it’s not too much the same,” Warne had said in 2020.
If you look at India, their Achilles heel was Test wins in SENA countries, where pacers have been crucial in getting you the required 20 wickets to win a Test. Hence, over the last few years, they have identified a core group of fast bowlers and have achieved success in all those countries. In the last four years, they have won matches in England and South Africa on multiple occasions and have won back-to-back Test series in Australia.
While there’s no shortage of spinners in Australia, the trick is to give them more exposure and back them. Swepson could just be the start, but to get to a point where they are spoilt for choices, Australia will have to dig way deeper than they have in the last five years or so.
Is Swepson good enough to last?
No Australian spinner has picked up more wickets (97) than Swepson in the last four years of first-class cricket (non-Tests). In fact, Swepson was instrumental in Queensland’s title-clinching Sheffield 2020-21 season. His 32 wickets at 23.40 in the season included three wickets in the final against New South Wales.
In his short international career, consisting of seven T20Is, Swepson has certainly shown potential. He has varied his pace extremely well. He has not been afraid to toss the ball up and also has the flipper – something which he has been working on since 2017 - in his arsenal to trouble the batters, dismissing players of the quality of Virat Kohli, Jos Buttler, Chris Gayle among others.
He has an excellent googly though. Close to 24% of his deliveries in T20s since 2018 have been googlies, and have fetched him 15 wickets at 15.7, striking once every 14.8 deliveries. However, in first-class cricket during this period, the percentage drops to under six and furthermore, the flippers have been negligible.
Swepson has been deemed ready to the big stage for a long time now. He is ready. It is now just a question of transforming his domestic form into Test cricket. Easier said than done, but his transition into playing Tests could the start of Australia’s way of looking at options beyond Lyon. They had to start somewhere!
