Four-Test leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson could hardly hide his frustration after Australia picked no specialist spinner at the SCG for the first time since 1888. “I won’t be careful – it sucks,” he admitted, echoing the disappointment of many who grew up watching spin dominate the New Year’s Test.
The omission of Nathan Lyon’s stand-in, Todd Murphy, means Australia have gone without a front-line tweaker in four of their past six Tests. Between April 2013 and June 2025 they left one out only once in 120 matches, so the sudden swing towards all-seam attacks is hard to miss.
“I’m obviously biased, but I think we’ve seen it coming in Sheffield Shield cricket,” Swepson said. “We see less and less spin bowlers coming into the game, particularly in certain parts of the country, and that’s what we’re now seeing a little bit with the Test arena.”
Australia and England have used spin for just 14.2 per cent of the overs in the current Ashes, the slow bowlers collecting a combined nine wickets across the first four Tests. On pitches that stay green and offer lavish seam movement, captains are reluctant to risk a spinner, let alone two.
“We’re seeing greener wickets and seam being the main source of wickets, and it’s such a shame because there’s definitely a spot for spin bowling in Test cricket,” Swepson argued, mindful of his own place on the pecking order. “I grew up watching Shane Warne bowl around the wicket into pizzas at the SCG and Stuart MacGill ragging them sideways.”
He is not calling for dust-bowls. What the 30-year-old wants is balance – surfaces that start true, encourage stroke-play and, by day four, reward spinners brave enough to toss the ball up. “It would be nice to bring that back, but with the way it’s going at the moment, it looks like we’re going further and further away from that with the wickets that we’re producing.”
Cricket Australia is conscious of the commercial risk when Tests wrap up inside three or four days. Estimates suggest shortened Ashes contests have cost the board about A$15 million this summer. Yet, in Swepson’s view, the antidote is not simply flatter pitches that turn into lifeless roads.
“Talking to older guys in Shield cricket … they talk about batting for two days on an absolute road and then all of sudden chunks are coming out of the wicket,” he recalled. “I couldn’t tell you the last time I played a Shield game like that.”
The leggie believes a return to that style of surface – good for batting early, rewarding spin late – would serve two purposes: keep matches alive into days four and five, and nurture the next generation of slow bowlers. “It’s a real shame and I’d love to see it come back that way, but somewhere in the country has to be prepared to do that and be prepared to make those sort of wickets. I don’t know who’s going to do that first or whether it’s a CA thing or what it is, but it would be great to see that happen again.”
Murphy’s exclusion in Melbourne and Sydney particularly irked Swepson. “The best way you learn is experience and getting out there and playing,” he stressed. “For example, it would’ve been great for Toddy to just play this game if that’s who they’re thinking for the Tests away [from home].”
With overseas tours to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India on the horizon, Australia will soon need spinners capable of bowling long spells under pressure. The fear, shared quietly among coaches, is that by the time they reach those shores the cupboard might be barer than expected.
Swepson, now plying his white-ball trade with the Melbourne Stars, is doing what he can in the nets while hoping curators – and selectors – tilt the balance back towards spin. For now, though, the New Year’s Test is another reminder that, in Australia at least, it remains very much a seamer’s world.
