Cricket 2022: Ashton Agar opens up on rap inspiration as he eyes Test spot
Ashton Agar is in form and adamant he is ready to turn his career around. And the spinning all-rounder found inspiration in an unusual place.
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An athlete can find inspiration in the most unusual places, including the last place you’d ever look for it – a rap concert.
Ashton Agar has revealed how an alternate UK hip hop artist may have unlocked his sleeping Test career, after a seminal moment watching rapper Loyle Carner “owning” the stage one night in Perth made him realise he could be that free on the cricket field.
The spinning all-rounder has not played a Test since 2017 but is confident, if given an opportunity on next month’s Test tour of Pakistan, he can redefine the second half of his career.
It seems only yesterday Agar was the fresh-faced, long-haired teenager scoring 98 on debut in the Ashes with the whole of Australia watching on TV, but he’s 28 now and adamant he’s ready to turn the corner at Test level if selectors go with two or three spinners in Pakistan.
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“Certainly I’m going over there with the mindset I’m a chance to play in the first Test if the wicket presents the opportunity to play three spinners,” said Agar.
“… the inner feeling within me is I’m ready for it if that comes. I think it’ll be a lot more fun than any other Test I’ve played before because I just feel like I’m bowling as well as I have at the moment.”
Asked why he feels more on top of his game than when he played his four Test matches to date between 2013-17, Agar opened up about the motivation he got from up-and-coming rapper Carner, who keen FIFA gamers might recognise as an artist featured on the soundtrack of the game.
The rapper’s energy on stage opened Agar’s mind to the fact he too could be fearless at the bowling crease.
“It’s really hard to nail down a single turning point. There’s lots of different things. I actually remember one day watching this guy, who is a rapper, he toured to Perth, Loyal Carner, one of my favourite musicians actually – he’s a UK rapper. And he was on the stage and he was owning the stage and it was beautiful,” said Agar.
“And I thought, ‘this is so cool.’ He just has such great presence and we’re all there to watch him and I was thinking to myself, ‘oh God, I’d love to do that,’.
“But at that moment I kind of realised I actually have the chance to do this all the time.
“Every time I get to play cricket.
“So I guess I’m approaching games like that.
“It’s easier said than done. It’s something you need to practice being brave and just going for it and I guess being open to what might happen.
“If I were to take the conservative route and just try and survive in this game I think it would be a bit of a miserable existence, so it’s much nicer to try and thrive than survive I guess.”
Agar would appear to be behind legspinner Mitch Swepson in the pecking order to be chosen as a second spinner behind Nathan Lyon on the upcoming tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
But sub-continental teams have themselves shown a preference for finger spinners in their own conditions in recent years and Agar’s ability to bat No.7 or higher – he relished opening in Tuesday night’s T20 – does give him a point of difference that selectors can’t ignore.
Agar says he has rediscovered the fearless attitude he showed with the bat as a No.11 when he took the cricket world by storm as an 18-year-old at Trent Bridge.
“I’m not really worried if the ball gets hit for four or six or goes for runs. I’m taking a really positive approach and looking to get wickets, looking to spin the ball hard but also use all my variations I like bowling,” said Agar.
“Growing up looking back to when I was a kid I used to love watching all the spinners bowl.
“On Youtube, I used to try and bowl all these different balls and that’s how I bowled. I did whatever I felt like doing at the time, whatever my gut was telling me and that’s how I’m doing it now, except you add on a number of international matches – I’ve almost been a professional cricketer for 10 years now – and that experience on top of that, it’s a nice place to be.”
Test secret weapon: Theory behind Agar selection shock
Ashton Agar’s shock promotion to open the batting for Australia has triggered speculation he could become a secret weapon in Test cricket this year.
On previous tours of the sub-continent, Australia and numerous other touring teams have failed because they asked themselves the question “should we play two spinners?”, when the answer was in fact, they should have played three.
Agar’s surprise elevation to the top of the order for the third T20 against Sri Lanka sent captain Aaron Finch packing down to No.3 — not that he would have noticed, because Ben McDermott was out first ball of the innings as Australia chased 6-121 to win by six wickets with 19 balls to spare and clinch the series 3-0 with two matches still to play.
If the change-up was designed to get Finch out of his funk from the first two matches, it worked as the skipper hit a match-shaping 35 off 36 balls – alongside a 39 off 26 from Glenn Maxwell – to back-up Kane Richardson’s masterful 3-21 with the ball in the absence of Pat Cummins.
However, if Australia is looking at a way to squeeze a third spinner into the team for upcoming Test tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka and India next year, then Tuesday night’s experiment might become a blueprint.
As unlikely as it might be to see Agar open in a Test, clearly Australia is interested in his potential as an all-rounder and if they’re confronted with a raging turner in Pakistan next month or even more probably in Sri Lanka during the winter, then the left-hander could force his way into the top six.
With pace all-rounder Cameron Green bowling 12 overs a day and a second new ball option, Australia shouldn’t be afraid to play three spinners if the conditions allow it … because history shows they will likely regret it if they don’t.
Even if Australia only go with two spinners Agar isn’t out of the fight to play, because the uncapped leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson has barely played any cricket and finger-spinners have been largely preferred by the likes of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in recent years.
Fox Cricket expert Andrew Symonds said in a busy year of Asian Test tours and a T20 World Cup title defence, Agar had an enormous opportunity.
“To really make it count and give the selectors another headache as to what they do,” he said.
Agar is nobody’s fool as a batsman.
When he scored his unforgettable 98 as a No.11 against England on Test debut as a teenager back in 2013, people remarked how well he played world class veteran bowlers like Graeme Swann.
But what they didn’t realise is he’d spent countless hours analysing Swann on YouTube and knew every ball he bowled.
The 28-year-old remains an unfulfilled talent at Test level, but selectors might have moved him to open as a strategy to try flush that undoubted potential out with a new challenge.
Agar didn’t get a chance to show his full batting ability, hitting a four and six in his 13 off 13 before he was out LBW on DRS review, but he does have three first-class centuries to his name.
The fact he pocketed a very tidy 1-14 off his four overs in Canberra on Tuesday night was a further reminder of why he has long been a favourite of the selectors.
Mitchell Starc delivered the ‘anti-Harmison’ when he claimed a wicket off the first ball of the Ashes in Brisbane, but unfortunately the big quick outstripped the former England quick on Tuesday night with a delivery that lifted three metres above the ground and landed a Harmison distance off the pitch, evading a diving Matt Wade to go for five no balls.
IPL money magnet Daniel Sams was called up to replace Steve Smith (concussion) and took a spectacular diving catch in the outfield where he slid just inside the boundary rope.
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