Oz should rely on spin: Hussey
Sydney: Former Test batsman Michael Hussey has urged Australia’s selectors not to dismiss the previously untried option of employing three specialist spinners against India as a means of trying to overturn the team’s wretched recent form in Asia. Hussey, whose average of 63.05 in Tests played in Asia remains the highest of any Australian batters to have played five Tests or more in those most challenging conditions, believes the option of using a trio of tweakers and just two front-line fast bowlers may offer some merit. The National Selection Panel, headed by interim chair Trevor Hohns who also oversaw the panel in 2004 when Australia last won a Test series in India, has loaded up on spinners for the four-Test Qantas Tour that begins next month. With incumbent pair Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe joined in the 16-man squad by left-arm orthodox spinner Ashton Agar and uncapped leg spinner Mitchell Swepson, as well as competent part-timers Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell. But Australia has historically been reluctant to engage a predominantly spin attack in India, essentially because India’s batters are so familiar with the art and handle it so adroitly. And due to the belief, that proved correct in 2004 when pace pair Jason Gillespie (20 wickets at 16.15) and Glenn McGrath (14 at 25.42) accounted for half of the Indian batters to be dismissed across the four Tests. The closest Australia has come to rolling out three specialist spinners in India was on their previous