Time to take punt on young gun Swepson after spinners too loose and one-paced in Sri Lanka

AUSTRALIA’S spinners have bowled too many loose deliveries against Sri Lanka and it’s time for some fresh talent to be blooded, says former Test star Ashley Mallett.

Great promise ... Queensland’s Mitchell Swepson. Picture: Chris Hyde (Getty Images)

AUSTRALIA’S spinners Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland have bowled too many loose deliveries, allowing the Sri Lankans to control the series.

In the sub-continent an Australian spinner doesn’t have to bowl faster, he needs to bowl a fuller length.

Lyon and Holland are too “one paced” and could take a leaf out of Rangana Herath’s book – subtle changes of pace are as invaluable to him as his breadth of turn.

Herath bowls over-spinners and the odd side-spinner ... some spin, some go straight on – so too Dilruwan Perera.

I know how these guys bowl because they were a part of my Spin Australia squads, I ran for the Sri Lanka Cricket Board in Colombo in 2006 and 2007.

Australia’s batting has been abysmal. Joe Burns must be axed, along with Adam Voges and Mitch Marsh, for the coming Indian tour.

Voges’ dreadful attempt to reverse sweep Perera in Galle should sound the death knell to his Test career and Marsh is seemingly short of what one might expect a Test all-rounder to produce on any wicket.

Batting on the slow, spinning wickets is not easy against a top-flight spinner, but it is not impossible.

Certainly 21-year-old Kusal Mendis with that masterful second innings 176 found the supposed spinning minefield in Kandy to his liking.

Australia will have to bat and bowl out of its skin in the third Test, to avoid another drubbing, which would send it home in the wake of a three-nil whitewash.

Next is a tour to India. Holland will make way for Steve O’Keeffe, who was looking good before suffering a hamstring injury, but the spin duo of Lyon and O’Keeffe needs bolstering.

Apparently Holland was picked to replace the injured O’Keeffe due to his eight-wicket haul in the Sheffield Shield final against South Australia at Glenelg Oval.

Amazing he got any wickets at all given the ludicrous “far flung” field Holland’s Victorian captain, Matthew Wade, set.

Right now, it’s time to take a punt.

Bring in Mitchell Swepson, who has just bowled Australia A to a series sweep over South Africa A on home soil.

Why Swepson and not one of the other emerging spinners such as Adam Zampa or Tasmania’s Cameron Boyce?

Well, Zampa has played 22 first class matches, taking 53 wickets at an average of 50.77.

If it wasn’t for his good, strong returns with the bat down the list he’d be out of the SA Shield team.

Boyce left Queensland for Tasmania, after the selectors opted for Swepson over him in the squad. Boyce has played 45 first-class matches taking 92 wickets at 49.77.

As with Zampa, Boyce is better suited to the short form of the game.

Swepson reminds me of a young, raw Shane Warne. He has played just eight first class games for a modest return of 19 wickets at an average of 38.15.

They aren’t great figures, but neither was Warne’s Shield record at the outset of his career.

He turned a game around early in his career, when Allan Border took a chance in the dying stages of a Test in Sri Lanka, throwing him the ball at a critical stage of the match.

Warne took three cheap wickets, Australian won and the youngster was on his way.

Now it’s time for the Australian selectors to take a chance and pick Swepson for the Indian tour.

They won’t regret it.

Ashley Mallett played 38 Tests for Australia

Originally published as Time to take punt on young gun Swepson after spinners too loose and one-paced in Sri Lanka