Leg-spinner Adam Zampa concedes he may have to leave South Australia to ignite is Test dream
He’s Australia’s No. 1 one-day spinner, but Adam Zampa fears his major ambition of playing Test cricket can’t be fulfilled in South Australia and may require him to seek out other opportunities interstate.
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Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa has confirmed replicating his one-day success at Test level as the decisive factor in a next state move.
The Sunday Mail revealed Zampa is unsettled in South Australia where managing three first-class games across the past two seasons have limited his shot at a Test debut.
“My dream is 100 per cent to still play Test cricket, wherever that might be to get me to that spot one day. It’s probably quite a distance away now,” said Zampa, with Mitch Swepson leading the queue to back up Test off-spinner Nathan Lyon on Australia’s mid-year tour of Bangladesh.
A return to New South Wales and the spin-friendly SCG would be an attractive proposition for Zampa, where left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe, 35, is in the twilight of his career. Victorian leg-spin prodigy Will Parker is yet to choose between cricket and AFL but has unseated 38-year-old Fawad Ahmed.
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South Australian high performance boss Tim Nielsen will “talk long and hard” with Zampa in a bid to retain the tweaker, who was the pick of Australia’s bowlers with 2/48 in a series sealing six-wicket one-day loss to South Africa in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
Zampa is the No. 1 spinner in Australia’s 50-over set up and Twenty20 World Cup masterplan. The 27-year-old’s ambition to earn a Baggy Green through weight of first-class wickets has been complicated by South Australia’s preference for the pace of Chadd Sayers, Daniel Worrall, Wes Agar, Joe Mennie and Nick Winter.
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“South Australia is the best place to bowl leg-spin,” said Zampa, who is yet to contact rival states regarding a switch.
“I think just in particular with one-day cricket and T20 cricket at the moment, I’ve hardly had an opportunity to play any four-day cricket, so that’s a factor as well
“I’ll consider all options, but the main goal was to try and get to the best place possible to eventually get me into that Test team hopefully.”
The BBL contract embargo is scheduled to end on Friday, which will allow the Strikers to trade Billy Stanlake to Melbourne Stars for Worrall and poach opener Matt Renshaw from Brisbane Heat.