After the retirements of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, England’s cupboard had never been so empty of quality spinners. But Moeen Ali, a batsman who bowled a bit of off-spin, stepped into the breach and tidied England over for a decade with 204 Test wickets.
This cupboard now seems emptier still, to the point where England will have to plan on selecting no specialist spinner at all at home this summer against India and in Australia this winter.
There is always Jack Leach, steadiness personified, but he was taken down in Australia last time, and while the accuracy remains – he has been doing another tidy job for Somerset against Surrey at the Oval – the flight and guile have yet to blossom. Worcestershire have sunk to the bottom of Division One, after losing to Durham in two days, making three defeats in four games, yet they managed to draw against Somerset by blocking out for 200 overs in their second innings at Leach’s own Taunton.
Shoaib Bashir was England’s spinner the whole of last winter, and took his haul to 49 wickets in 15 Tests, but the limitations are becoming ever more apparent. Bashir can take wickets on turners, in other words in Asia, but he cannot contain on flat pitches, which is what a four-man pace attack such as England’s needs. He does not have the know-how, simply does not have the experience, to hang in and turn 0-70 from 20 overs into decent figures like 3-90 or 4-120.
Bashir’s three championship matches for Glamorgan this season, when on loan from Somerset, have resulted in two wickets at 152 runs each and, perhaps more relevantly, a run-rate above four runs an over. Even against left-handed batsmen, that amazing accuracy which first attracted Ben Stokes – on seeing Bashir keep Sir Alastair Cook tied down – has been receding as he tinkers with his bowling action and loses that exacting line.
If England are faced with a raging turner in the fifth Test in Sydney – and such pitches were seen there in the 1980s – they might have to call in someone, but for the most part Australia is now offering seamers’ pitches, and two part-timers in Joe Root and Jacob Bethell will surely have to suffice. Which makes it all the more of a waste that Bethell has not played a game in the Indian Premier League, when he could have been plying his left-arm spin for Warwickshire – and he has a good wristy action which gets revolutions on the ball – and learning how to make red-ball hundreds, something he has yet to do.
But England will have to have one specialist spinner on call in Australia, just in case. Until recently Rehan Ahmed has been the reserve, but so far this season his batting has gone forwards, and his wrist-spin has gone backwards from the point where he took 22 wickets in his five Tests, all in Asia. This season he has moved into Leicestershire’s top three batsmen, where he has all the strokes, but he has been trusted to bowl so little by their captain Peter Handscomb that he has taken one first-class wicket this season.
In Leicestershire’s current game against Gloucestershire, Rehan came out at the tea interval on day two, wearing a cap to practise a few of his spinners, and that has been it for his bowling so far.
On the other hand, Rehan’s younger brother Farhan Ahmed can keep it tight and take wickets, as he proved while helping Nottinghamshire move towards victory over Sussex. The energy Farhan puts into his offbreaks starts before he begins his run-up, with a purposeful stance as if he were about to bat not bowl, then a longish run-up, and so much of his body goes into revolutions on the ball.
Farhan was mature far beyond his years when he made his first-class debut last summer for England Lions against the touring Sri Lankans aged 16. Now he looks as dynamic as any spinner in England, certainly any finger-spinner, but it says a lot about the cupboard when that accolade goes to someone aged 17.
Sussex lead Notts by 64 runs with only three wickets left. Josh Tongue took another wicket to add to his first-innings five, which suggests that England’s attack against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge on May 22 will contain Gus Atkinson, Tongue and Sam Cook. But however depleted by injury England’s resources are, Sussex’s Ollie Robinson – who kept Sussex in their game against Notts by taking four wickets – seems to have bowled his last for his country. Even if England have so few bowlers who can make the ball turn, the wheel of fate does.
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