Why is a middling back-up seamer suddenly better than a quality spinner, whatever the conditions?
When Shane Warne called his biography No Spin, it wasn’t a recommendation. Speaking for the dead is unacceptably presumptuous, but his record in life was loud and clear in backing his guild. Teams should always give themselves the option of spin bowling was his common contention.
Nor is allegiance of style the only factor. His old teammate Jason Gillespie, as pure a paceman as they come, had the same view watching the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney. “You need that variety,” he said on radio, shaking his head.