Want to see Agar, Swepson push Nathan Lyon in Australia team, asserts Steve O’Keefe

Back in early 2017, when Australia toured India for a four-match Test series, Aussie legspinner making his first trip to the subcontinent stunned everyone with his twin 6/35 in the opening game in Pune. Australia won the game gloriously before losing the series 1-2 to the hosts. The series was but one of the four tours that Australia have made to India ever since registering a 2-1 series in the subcontinent in 2004. According to O’Keefe, it’s necessary for Australia to be fully equipped with quality spinners, before making their next trip to India in 2021.

In order to achieve that, the former captain of the New South Wales Sheffield Shield team stressed on the need for spin-friendly tracks at home that will help leg-spinners like Mitchell Swepson and Ashton Agar to challenge Nathan Lyon on the domestic circuit.

"If we really want to challenge India, which is the final frontier and win a series in India, and four or five other Test nations to beat them in their conditions, we're going to have to start promoting it at home. I want to see guys like Swepson, Agar really push Nathan Lyon in that Australian team. He's the next level but we have to start looking forward to the next generation and I think we can promote it more at home," said the 34-year-old, as quoted by Cricbuzz.

The seasoned NSW spinner reflected on his own career,  wherein he scalped 301 first-class wickets, to highlight the scenario in Australia. O’Keefe pointed out that despite him being the leading wicket-taker in the most recent Sheffield Shield season, he never really produced any match-winning performance. Hence, according to him, it is important for Australia to provide such conditions for spinners to be able to perform well in subcontinent conditions. O’Keefe stressed the importance of improvement of first-class standards for spinners.

"When you want to win overseas, spinners are the ones who have to win you games. But go back and have a look at Shield cricket. I'm the leading wicket-taker this year with 16 wickets and played five games. I've not had a match-winning role in any of the games. When you go to these places, it's all on your spinners; they have got to be people who are mentally tough and have the skill. It is a matter of urgency, if we are going to win over there to make sure we encourage these guys,” he added.

"If we want to get good at beating teams on the subcontinent we need to keep improving; it [Sheffield Shield] has become really stagnant. We use this Duke ball for the back end of the year and it becomes a bit mundane. We should keep trying to improve the standard of first-class cricket. I'm going to be biased towards the spinners.”