ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Adam Zampa hopes to make it to Australia’s playing XI

Adam Zampa, the only specialist spinner in Australia’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, feels his chances of getting through in the starting XI are very slim.

Adam Zampa, the only specialist spinner in Australia’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, feels his chances of getting through in the starting XI are very slim. Australia have gone ahead with a very formidable 15-member squad for the ICC event which will begin June 1. Along with Australian big four — Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and James Pattinson, , — the selectors have also included the option of John Hastings along with Zampa. In addition to this, the Steven Smith led-side also has the options of playing spin-bowling all-rounders in form of Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head. With these many options available to choose from, Zampa asserts that he may have to sit out from a few games.

But having said this, the option of having a leg-spinner in their squad will make the Australian bowling attack more lethal. The Champions Trophy will be played in England and Wales on only four venues — Lord’s, The Oval, Edgbaston and Sophia Gardens in Cardiff.  Given the playing conditions on these three grounds, the wicket is expected dry along with worn-out surfaces as the tournament progress towards the ending stages.

“I think the general feeling is that the wickets here will slow up in the back end of the tournament,” Zampa was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au, ahead of the first of Australia’s two warm-up matches, against Sri Lanka at The Oval on March 26.

“I’m preparing for that, but I’m prepared to play every game. We’ve been selecting teams in the last 24 months (based) on the conditions and with the fire power we have with the ball, it’s always handy to have.”

Zampa made his One-Day International (ODI) debut on February 6 in 2016 taking the opposition by storm in his initial games. He had fixed his place as a specialist spinner in the starting XI playing 18 of Australia’s 21 ODIs from his debut, which also helped him finish as the leading wicket-taker in the 50-over format in 2016. But a string of inconsistent performances saw Zampa warming benches eventually. Since then the majority of spin bowling has been handled by Maxwell and Head as both also bring along the option of power hitting. “The way we’ve selected teams recently, it’s just the conditions,” he said. “I think if the conditions suit, which hopefully they will for me, (I’ll play).

“You can see a lot of dry wickets in England as well so I think I can have a pretty big role to play in this tournament.”

But the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 saw Zampa being amongst the top-wicket-taking bowlers. Zampa played for the Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) wherein he shared much time with Imran Tahir who’s the ICC ODI No. 1 bowler at the moment.

Zampa was RPS’ lynchpin bowler in the 2016 edition, wherein he also picked up a 6 for 19 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). But, RPS purchased Tahir days before the tournament started and this move saw Tahir replacing Zampa in the playing XI.

The Australian leggie did play the vital playoff games as Tahir had to return back to international duty. But despite this, Zampa is still unhappy with his efforts in the tournament.

“As a team, Pune had a great tournament (but) personally it didn’t go to plan with Tahir being in the same squad,” Zampa said.

“He (Tahir) bowled really well and out-bowled me in the first couple of games that we played together. So I didn’t get the opportunities that I probably would have liked throughout the middle of the tournament, but it’s always a nice experience.

“It’s always nice to see leg-spinners doing well and there’s been a lot of leg-spinners do well recently in one-day cricket with myself, Tahir and Rashid.

“So it’s always nice to get confidence from those guys as well,” Zampa stated.