Adam Zampa: All you need to know about the Rising Pune Supergiants and Aussie Spinner

From the land which gave the cricket world a showman in the form of Shane Warne, Adam Zampa is the newest leg-spinning talent to arrive in the spotlight. Representing the Rising Pune Supergiants, the youngster made his IPL debut against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Though his team could not win the contest, Zampa managed to grab quite a few eyeballs by scalping the wickets of AB de Villiers and KL Rahul. Let us take a look at the most interesting facts about the promising cricketer.

1) Born in the obscure Shellharbour village which was originally a haven for Aborigines, the 24-year old from New South Wales made his first-class debut against Queensland during the 2012 season. However, he switched to South Australia from the next edition of the Sheffield Shield since senior spinner Nathan Lyon had decided to do the reverse.

2) Zampa has a smooth run-up and an easily repeatable action. The wrist-spinner is very much a product of the modern era and relies on a stump-to stump line. Unlike Warne, he does not turn or flight the ball extravagantly and relies on his googly.

3) Not surprisingly, he is much more comfortable in the shorter formats and his record backs up the same. From 22 first-class matches, Zampa has taken only 53 wickets at a mediocre average of 50.77. However, in List-A and T20 games, he has picked up 38 and 35 wickets at respective averages of 33.07 and 24.71.

4) The leggie made his international debut against New Zealand at Wellington. His first wicket at the highest level was a huge one in Kane Williamson. He has started decently with figures of 2/57 and 1/45 from his two ODIs, so far.

5) Zampa‘s T20I career began much more encouragingly when he stifled a power-packed South Africa batting lineup with tight spells of 0/26 and 0/23 from his full quota of overs. The latter effort at Cape Town was instrumental in setting up the series decider for Australia.

6) He has a sharp mind which was evident upon his arrival in India as Australia’s premier spinner for the World T20. Accessing the slower sub-continental pitches, Zampa had affirmed, “The ball sticks in the wicket a bit here. So, the length that you bowl is crucial. You use changes of pace as well over here. Generally if you change your pace in Australia, you get smacked over your head.”

7) However, the wrist-spinner was under-bowled by his captain Steve Smith in the tournament. After bowling only one economical over in Australia’s loss against New Zealand, he impressed against Bangladesh with a match-winning 3-wicket haul. In the virtual knockout against hosts India, Zampa was given only two overs which went for just 11 runs as the Aussies exited from the event.

8) Zampa was a part of the U-19 World Cup winning Australian team in 2010 wherein he played two matches and picked up four wickets. The slow bowler has also displayed leadership quality during his stint as the captain of Sutherland in Sydney grade cricket.

9) The youngster came into his own when he ended up as the leading wicket-taker for Melbourne Stars in the 2015/16 Big Bash league during which they finished runners-up. Importantly, Melbourne’s coach at that time was Stephen Fleming.

10) And it was Fleming who was instrumental in paving the way for the leg-spinner to make his IPL debut. Formerly associated with Chennai Super Kings, the Kiwi was appointed as Rising Pune Supergiants’ coach. Subsequently, Zampa was snapped up by the franchise at his base price of INR 30 Lakhs in the auction.