We have seen plenty of action throughout an Ashes series played in fast-forward – but not much in the way of frontline spin bowling.
England have not played an out-and-out tweaker at all – and that is meant as no disrespect to Will Jacks – with Shoaib Bashir left out of all five Tests.
Australia, meanwhile, selected Nathan Lyon for the first and third games, but omitted him from the second, the Brisbane day-nighter, before being shorn of him for the final two fixtures due to a hamstring injury sustained in their Ashes-clinching victory in Adelaide.
I hate [not picking a spinner]. But we keep producing wickets we don’t think are going to spin. Seam and cracks are going to play a big part. You get pushed into a corner in a way.
Australia stand-in captain Steve Smith, at the toss.
The hosts could have replaced Lyon with fellow off-spinner Todd Murphy in Melbourne – a game that only lasted two days with batters toiling on a surface featuring 10mm of grass – and Sydney as well.
But they didn’t, instead selecting an all-pace bowling unit for those two Tests.
Australia spinner Nathan Lyon picked up five wickets before a series-ending hamstring injury
It meant Australia fielded an XI at the SCG without a frontline spinner for the first time since 1888, a move that left Sky Sports’ Michael Atherton lamenting a lack of variety yet again.
Atherton told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast: “It means the cricket we have seen in this series has been a bit one-dimensional.
“Looking at the pitch [on day one in Sydney] you wouldn’t say it offered enough for five seamers but that is not to say it is going to turn on the last day either. We will have to wait and see.
“[Not picking a spinner] may be a reflection on Murphy – if Lyon had been fit, I imagine he might have played. Murphy is not a bad bowler but he is no Lyon.”
Will Jacks has been England’s main spin option in the final four Ashes fixtures
Where has all the spin bowling gone?
Only 783 deliveries in this Ashes series have been bowled by a spinner with that bowling type accounting for just nine wickets (five for Lyon, four for Jacks) at an average of 56.55.
There were only three overs of spin in the series-opening two-day Perth Test, then none at all in the rapid Melbourne match.
Day one in Sydney was also spin-less, albeit only 45 overs were possible due to rain, so what has happened?
Atherton added: “Pitches have become more uniform and less varied, partly because of the drop-ins at the multi-sport grounds like Brisbane and Adelaide.
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Australia stand-in captain Steve Smith had reflected on the fading impact of spin in games after the two-day MCG Test
“Sydney used to be the outlier in terms of spin and if that’s gone the way of the other grounds in terms of more grass left on there is a lack of variety and that is not necessarily a good thing for the game.
“What you want to see in a five-Test series is the whole range of skills.”
Atherton added: “The conditions have changed. It used to be a slow, low turner at the SCG.
“I listened to Steve Smith’s pre-match press conference and he said at the start of his career you’d get games going deep into the last day and there would be a lot of reverse swing and spin.
“But he added for the vast majority of his career they have not been like that. I got the sense from hearing him speak then that Australia may not play a spinner.”
England captain Ben Stokes has gone with an all-pace frontline attack once again in Sydney
SCG’s spin-friendly reputation ‘history’
Atherton’s fellow pundit Nasser Hussain added of England and Australia overlooking a main spinner in Sydney: “I think you have to be careful. The forecast is to be hot and you have to pick a side for the last day as well as the first day.
“However, I think both captains feel that with the heat the cracks will open up and that’s when you want your seamers.”
Australia assistant coach Daniel Vettori, who took 362 Test wickets for New Zealand with his left-arm spin bowling, said of the SCG’s reputation as a spin-friendly venue: “It’s history, it’s a long time ago.
“I think you’ve seen over the last three years has been diminishing results for spin bowlers here, which is obviously not something that we’d like, but it’s the nature of the surface.
“I think at some stage we’ll get back to possibly how it was preceding these last couple of years. At this point in time, it’s about the fast bowlers.
“I think both teams saw it that way: that the spin bowler hasn’t been effective in the last couple of years.
“Spin bowling is incredibly important to Test cricket. I think people love watching it when it’s at its absolute best and when conditions can suit and assist the spin bowler.
“We’re just in this stage now where that’s not the case. I wouldn’t be surprised if it changed in the future.”
Ashes series in Australia 2025-26
Australia lead five-match series 3-1
