Calcutta/Dhaka: Ashton Agar looks set to play his first Test in four years against Bangladesh on Sunday, after coach Darren Lehmann suggested Australia would go with two spinners for the series opener in Mirpur.
The 23-year-old left-arm finger spinner made his Test debut as a teenager in the 2013 Ashes series, starring more with bat than ball in two matches against England that remain his only experience of the longest form of the game.
Agar’s likely return will be a huge vote of confidence in his all-round ability.
Four years on from his jaw-dropping international debut, Agar is ready to not only thrive as Australia’s second spinner but also push his case to be considered a genuine Test all-rounder. Barring Dhaka’s monsoon adding some unexpected spice to the pitch for Sunday’s first Test, Agar looks certain to edge out leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson and partner Nathan Lyon — who he replaced in the 2013 Ashes, and then made way for two Tests later — in a two-pronged spin attack in Mirpur. Steven O’Keefe has also been dropped despite a brilliant tour of India earlier this year.
The tourists were robbed of their only practice match because of rain in Dhaka on Monday, which Lehmann said made it even less likely he would radically overhaul his team from that which finished the tour of India in March.
“We obviously haven’t played too much, so we’re fairly settled in where we want to go,” he told reporters in the Bangladesh capital. “That decision will be made later, once we start to have a look at the test wicket and the conditions. Most likely, I think we’ll play two spinners.” Agar toured India with Australia earlier this year, but never got a chance to play as his fellow left-armer O’Keefe took 19 wickets at an average of 23.26, including 12 in the first Test at Pune.
O’Keefe, 32, was fined A$20,000 ($15,838) for “highly inappropriate behaviour” towards a female cricketer while drunk at an award ceremony in April, however, and was dumped for the Bangladesh tour in favour of the younger man.
“Steven was excellent over there, but we’ve decided to go with Ashton,” Lehmann said. “He’s got the all-round game and hopefully he’ll take it to the next level so if we wanted to play three quicks he could bat up the order, for example. He gives us a lot of flexibility in that way.
“Young Swepson is a good prospect as a leg-spinner... it’s really tight between all the spinners but Ashton himself has batted really well, he’s a gun fielder and he's got his length right with the ball...”
The first Test starts on Sunday with the second in Chittagong scheduled from September 4-8.
And with Australia not having any scheduled Test tours in the sub-continent for 18 months after they depart Bangladesh (per the ICC’s Future Tour Program), Agar could well be auditioning for a bigger role than just being Lyon’s sidekick.
“It depends on what the wicket looks like, but I’m ready to go if I get the nod,” said Agar. “It’s really pleasing to be around the Test group. It’s what you want to do and it’s a great bunch of guys to be around.
“The India series was good preparation, I bowled a lot over there on pretty similar wickets. So I’ve got a good idea on how I’d like to bowl if my opportunity comes out here. I think I’ve prepared really well.” Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s star all-rounder Shakib-Al Hasan has declared that they are “very much unbeatable” on home soil, ahead of the Test. Despite the Tigers having won just nine of the 100 matches they’ve contested since becoming the 10th Test-playing nation in 2000, Shakib believes a change in approach has enabled the team to begin producing better results.
“Previously the mindset was to draw against big teams – try to play five days, and play for a draw,” he told The Guardian. “But we never used to get the result. Then we started thinking, ‘Let’s try to win — let’s try to play and win the game’. The mindset changed, and that made us believe that we can win.”
