AUSSIE TWIN SPIN HAS CUP APPEAL
Zampa says double threat the way to go in T20 tournament
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 star batsman David Warner declaring they both nailed perfect lengths in Australia’s T20 whitewash of Sri Lanka earlier this summer.
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.
But the defensive tweaker was left at home for the current limited-overs 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 in the team.
“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 notched more scalps for Australia than the leggie’s 66 wickets.
“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 using specialist bowlers.
Glenn Maxwell expects spin to be the secret to success at this year’s T20 tournament in Australia.
“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.”