Adam Zampa says Australia should look at playing two spinners during the Twenty20 World Cup
As Australia prepares to chase Twenty20 World Cup riches later in the year, the hosts could have an ace up their sleeve in the form of twin tweakers ready to cause havoc.
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Adam Zampa says twin spin is the way for Australia to win this year’s Twenty20 World Cup, confident he and Ashton Agar can lift the trophy together at the MCG in November.
Zampa and Agar have joined forces with the white ball this summer with David Warner declaring both nailed perfect lengths in Australia’s T20 whitewash of Sri Lanka.
Australia opted for Test great Nathan Lyon, because of his stellar accuracy and control, as the sole spinner at the business end of last year’s World Cup in England.
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But the defensive tweaker was left at home for the series in India and, while Zampa and Lyon only played in same team in the build-up to the ODI tournament, Zampa said not much had changed with Agar.
“It’s very similar to bowling with Lyon,” the wrist-spinner said.
“The role I bowled with Gaz (Lyon) last year was he very much played a holding role. I think the ways are reversing a little bit with Ashton, in terms of the fact as you saw the other day he bowled later in the innings, whereas last year that was me.
“With playing two spinners one of us is going to have to bowl quite deep in the innings so one of us is going to have to play that (holding) role as well.”
Since Zampa’s ODI debut in 2016 only Mitchell Starc (85 wickets) has struck more for Australia than the leggie’s 66 scalps.
“I love bowling with two spinners. I enjoy not being the only spinner in the team,” Zampa said.
“I love playing with two wrist spinners and I love playing with Sandeep (Lamichhane) for the Stars.”
While Australia has plenty of batsmen who can offer spin overs, including D’Arcy Short, Marnus Labuschagne, Ashton Turner and even Steve Smith, coach Justin Langer prefers only using specialist bowlers.
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Glenn Maxwell expects spin to be the secret to success at this year’s T20 tournament.
“We saw pace bowling was the real winner in England (ODI World Cup) and I think that was because of the boundary sizes,” Maxwell said.
“Teams were able to take the spin on and clear the ropes, but I don’t think that’ll happen in Australia.”
Originally published as Adam Zampa says Australia should look at playing two spinners during the Twenty20 World Cup
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