The T20 captain of Australia, George Bailey, has said that Australia needs to find unorthodox spinners if the team has to do well in the next T20 World Cup which is going to be held in Bangladesh in 2014.
While talking to the reporters after his return from Sri Lanka, Bailey said, “If you have to do well under subcontinent conditions, you need to have a bit of variety in your spin bowling attack. But, we didn’t have any unorthodox spinner.”
“You look at the other top T20 sides and you will find that they have got a mystery spinner in their bowling line up. Pakistan has Saeed Ajmal, Sri Lanka has Ajantha Mendis, West Indies has Sunil Narine and India has Ravichandran Ashwin. But, we don’t have any mystery spinner. We need to find one pretty soon, otherwise, we will struggle again in Bangladesh.
“We had two specialist spinners in our squad, but, both of them were the orthodox ones. Xavier Doherty doesn’t bowl arm bowl too often and only bowls the delivery which comes in for the left hander. Brad Hogg has got a wrong one, but, his wrong one is not as lethal as a ‘carrom ball’ or a ‘doosra’.
“In Australia, the unorthodox spinners are not encouraged at the junior level. At the Under-11 or Under-13 level, they are told to bring orthodoxy in their bowling and try to be a genuine leg spinner or off spinner. But, we have to change our approach a bit. We need to encourage such type of spinners at junior level.”
When asked whether he wants to continue captaining the side, Bailey said, “Yes, I am enjoying the captaincy and I want to continue leading the Australian T20 side in the future. But, it all depends on the selectors. If they think that I am doing a good job as a captain, I will be more than happy to continue captaining the side.”