Australian spinners during and after Shane Warne - lack of pedigree maybe?

Fawad Ahmed of Australia in action during a net session ahead of the third NatWest One Day International Series match between England and Australia at Edgbaston on September 10, 2013 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Xavier Doherty, a left arm orthodox spinner, is another of those unconvincing spinners produced by Australia since Warne’s retirement. There was no rip and not enough revs behind Doherty’s deliveries, which meant it was difficult for me to regard him as a spinner in the first place. Going at an economy of 3.60 in a Test career spanning over four matches till date, well, he has been mediocre at best.

Nathan Lyon has been a wonder kid, having transformed himself from being ‘ground staff’ at the Adelaide Oval to being one of Australia’s first choice spinners when it comes to Test cricket in the last couple of years. This guy has something about him. He is tenacious and to an extent, has the drift and flight that are of paramount importance for any spinner to succeed but, it’s hard to see what Clarke thinks of Lyon.

When Australia toured India earlier this year, in the first Test at Chepauk, Lyon was hit all over the park and ended with match figures of 52.3-1-244-4. While those figures do not convince any captain to give him another go, I thought, Lyon did bowl well and to underline his work-rate, he castled Tendulkar’s stumps when he was batting on 81 by a classical off-spinner’s delivery, which spun from outside off and plotted a bat-pad gap through Sachin’s defence, but was otherwise up against some vengeance batting assault from the Indian batsmen.

There wasn’t a lot he could have done and just to reiterate my point about Clarke’s faith in him, Clarke dropped him for the second Test. So it’s hard to figure out as to where Lyon stands in terms of Clarke’s scheme of things. But from my perspective, being just 25 and having decent qualities for a spinner as compared to his other compatriots, I’d say Australia needs to stick with him to witness what he can dish out.

Coming to Fawad Ahmed, he comes from a country(Pakistan) that needs no mentioning about the quality of spinners it has produced. And from whatever I have seen of him, he looks good in the eye. There’s a lot more body into his deliveries and seems to mix it up quite beautifully. If Australia can persist with him and be patient, they could unearth someone special in this guy. But having said all that, his real test will be when he comes to the sub-continent and bowls to the likes of Virat Kohli, Mahela Jayawardene and Younis Khan, who are classical players of spin bowling. But he has caught my eye, and I hope he can be the answer to Australia’s spinner woes.