Australian captain Ricky Ponting backed his uncapped Tasmanian teammate Xavier Doherty to trouble England’s batsmen and particularly Kevin Pietersen in this week’s first Ashes Test.
The selection of the 28-year-old left-armer in place of Nathan Hauritz, Australia’s preferred spinner of recent seasons, has been angrily debated in Australia since its first Test squad was unveiled.
Legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne has been particularly critical of the omission of Hauritz, saying the seasoned twirler had performed well enough in home Tests to have earned “first crack at the Poms.”
Ponting leapt to Doherty’s defence on Monday, saying he was impressed with his skill and temperament and believed Hauritz had “lost his action.”
“Seeing him (Doherty) up close and personal for those couple of games (for Tasmania) probably gave me a bit more of an idea of how good he was because I haven’t played much with him in the last few years,” Ponting said.
“He’s a good solid character as well and I think he’ll handle the situation pretty well and I think we saw that in his first one-day international (taking four wickets) at the MCG. “I think he’ll be ready for what the English batters try and do.”
Doherty was chosen because the Australian selectors believed his orthodox left-arm finger spinners might be more threatening to England’s batsmen than Haurtiz’s off-spin.
Pietersen, especially, is seen to have a vulnerability to left-arm spin, having been dismissed 17 times to left-arm orthodox bowlers in his last 54 Test innings. Left-armer Steve O’Keefe bowled Pietersen in his most recent innings for England against Australia A.
“His record would suggest (Doherty will dismiss him),” Ponting said. Doherty said he would “take a little bit of heart out of that and also the way Steve O’Keefe played last week. “I’ll watch a bit of that footage leading into this week and see what I can pick up,” he said.
Ponting said Doherty’s selection as Australia’s ninth spinner since Warne retired in 2006 doesn’t meant Hauritz’s 17-Test career was over.
“He (Hauritz) felt he’s just lost his action a little bit in the last few months,” Ponting said. “He said to me he’s getting his action back from six months,” he said. “If he does that and bowls as well as he can like the last half of last summer, then he’ll give himself a chance to be picked again.”
