Shoaib Bashir or Jack Leach? Maybe Rehan Ahmed? Or even a candidate from outside the England set-up – Liam Dawson, at the end of his career, or Archie Vaughan, at the start of his?
Such are England’s options as they consider which spinner to pick for the Ashes. Yet perhaps debating the respective merits of these spinners is to ask the wrong question. Instead, England should be asking whether they need a specialist spinner at all.
England’s incumbent first-choice spinner, Bashir, is unwanted by Somerset for the start of the summer. Instead, he is in advanced talks to sign on loan for Glamorgan for the first three matches: a repeat of last county summer, when Bashir went on loan to Worcestershire in search of playing opportunities.
Bashir’s curious status at Taunton reflects his difficulties in the past year. Since a fine maiden tour of India, when the turning wickets complemented his bounce and drift, Bashir has struggled in conditions less conducive for spin, and averages 50.3 in his last nine Tests. Earlier this year, Bashir had an underwhelming tour of Australia with England Lions, taking four wickets at 68.5. Whether he would fare any better on a Test tour of Australia is a very legitimate question.
Any debate about England spinners Down Under quickly returns to 2010/11. In England’s lone away Ashes victory in the last 35 years, spin played a crucial role. Graeme Swann bowled 219 overs across the five Tests, more than anyone else on either side. Swann was a match-winner in Adelaide, taking seven wickets in the Test. When seam was the main threat, Swann still performed an essential containing role, conceding just 2.7 an over across the series. His control, including in the first innings, underpinned England’s entire balance, enabling the side to pick an attack with only four specialist bowlers.
Yet there is a simple problem with trying to emulate the 2010/11 template. England lack anyone of Swann’s control and guile – a package that was even more valuable when complemented by his outstanding slip fielding and dangerous lower-order hitting.
Even with his gifts, Swann ultimately averaged 52.6 in eight Tests in Australia.
That number has been put into new context since Swann retired. In their last 12 Tests in Australia, going back to Boxing Day 2013, England’s spinners have returned combined figures of 26 wickets for 1,682 wins – averaging 64.7 runs per wicket, and conceding 3.76 runs an over. In the same period, England’s seamers average 35.8 runs per wicket, with an economy rate of 3.02.
The travails of England’s spinners are no surprise. This century, Muthiah Muralitharan averages 61.9 in Australia, Harbhajan Singh 73.2 and Yasir Shah 89.5. Even Ravichandran Ashwin, the greatest spinner since Murali and Shane Warne, averages 42.4. All told, overseas spinners average 54.3 in Australia this century; that number reaches 59.1 when Indian spinners are omitted.
Overseas spinners ‘almost obsolete’
In recent years, spinners have become even less essential on Australian pitches. Across the five Tests against India during the recent Border-Gavaskar series, Nathan Lyon only bowled 122.4 overs, the fewest that he has ever bowled in a series comprising at least three Tests. Lyon was scarcely called upon because of a cocktail of the new batch of Kookaburra balls, which have offered sharply more seam movement, and spicier pitches.
The upshot has been to make overseas spinners almost obsolete. Since the new Kookaburra balls were used ahead of the 2021/22 Australian summer, touring spinners average 65.3, taking just 35 wickets in 20 Tests. Overseas seamers average 32 in the same period.
Traditionally, the sharp turn and bounce at Sydney demanded two spinners. Yet in this year’s Sydney Test, spinners bowled just ten overs in the match; India’s spin twins, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, were picked as batsmen, and bowled four overs between them. With Australia and India collapsing to 185, 181 and then 157 all out in the first three innings, spin was as redundant as swim shorts in English winter.
And so, as they finalise their plans for the winter, England should be freed from the straitjacket of thinking that they need a spinner, “just because”. Picking spinners in Australia, because it is the done thing, has contributed to England’s recent misery there. In 2021/22, Jack Leach was picked at the Gabba, and duly pummelled. Figures of 1-102 from 13 overs attested to England’s folly in selecting a spinner while omitting both James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Rather than feel obliged to pick a specialist spinner, England have the opportunity to think creatively about how to assemble their side. Handily, their top seven might well include two useful spinners, who turn the ball in different ways: Joe Root and Jacob Bethell. Root’s off spin should be deployed freely against Alex Carey: Root has dismissed Carey four times in Tests, while conceding just 47 runs.
Freed from the obligation to pick a specialist spinner, unless conditions demand, England could instead unleash four frontline quicks. Such a structure would be a return to the formation that England used in the last three Ashes Tests in 2023.
Just as it did then, a four-pronged pace attack could get the best out of Mark Wood – liberating him to be unleashed at full-throttle in spells of three or four overs, and maximising the amount of Tests that he could play. With Wood or possibly Jofra Archer in this role, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse and one of Chris Woakes and Matthew Potts would make up the rest of the attack.
There would be wider benefits to this balance, too. This sextet of seamers are all useful batsmen; England could conceivably line up with Carse, who has a first-class average of 30.3, at number ten.
Selecting four frontline quicks would also protect Ben Stokes. England hope that Stokes will be able to play a significant role with the ball in Australia. But an attack comprising, say, Atkinson, Carse, Wood and Bashir would risk Stokes being over-bowled – diminishing his effectiveness, and bringing an uncomfortable risk of injury.
Yet the greatest logic behind selecting four frontline seamers is ultimately very simple. Such a line-up enables England to get more of their best bowlers in their final XI. For an England side who have delighted in abandoning conventional wisdom, lining up without a specialist spinner could merely be the next step.
