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December 24, 2010

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Warne tells Australia to play spinner

AUSTRALIA needs to play a spinner in the fourth Ashes test and should consider utilizing allrounder Shane Watson's ability with the ball to bolster the pace attack, according to former spin-bowling great Shane Warne.

Australia tormented England with a four-pronged pace attack on a lively wicket in Perth last weekend to win the third test by 267 runs and level the series at 1-1, prompting calls for the same tactics to be used in Melbourne.

"I am sure the Australian selectors will want to stick with the same winning team. Historically, Melbourne test match has always needed a spinner, as you don't always pick a team for the first innings," Warne wrote in a blog on the Daily Telegraph website.

"It's hard to change a winning team but I think a spinner will play."

Warne took 708 test wickets before retiring at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series and Australia has used nine spinners in a vain attempt to replace him since.

On Warne's recommendation, Australia ditched the ninth, Xavier Doherty, after a crushing second Ashes test defeat in Adelaide and plucked a 10th, Michael Beer, from obscurity for the squad for the Perth test.

Left-armer Beer, who had played just five first class matches, ended up carrying the drinks as 12th man at the WACA but was retained in the squad for the Melbourne Cricket Ground test, which starts on Sunday.

Warne thinks consideration should be given to a recall for off spinner Nathan Hauritz, who has taken 63 wickets in 17 tests and responded to being dropped from the Ashes series with a string of strong performances for New South Wales.

"I think Beer was a horses for courses selection," Warne wrote. "What has impressed me about Hauritz, he's gone back and taken wickets and made runs."



 

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