The slow fade of spin in Australia

It's official: spin has been sidelined in Australia. A pink-ball Test you could understand. The MCG, sure, with 10mm of grass on and it was proved the correct decision. But the SCG, even nowadays, has confirmed it.

The days of the SCG being a two-spinner venue were already well in the past - that had only happened twice in the last 20 years - and even the annual speculation about it had died down in recent years. Of the regular Test venues in Australia, Nathan Lyon's average is worst at the SCG. But to reach this point is still a remarkable turn of events. Statistician Adam Morehouse confirmed yesterday that 1887-88 was the last Australia had not played a specialist spinner at the SCG.

After the MCG Test, Australia coach Andrew McDonald said: "It takes a lot for us to not pick a spinner... It's not something that we like doing. I don't think it's something that will happen moving forward as well. This is an outlier and we didn't pick a spinner in a red-ball Test match in Australia because of the surface that presented... But we like to play a spinner. I think we've got great spin depth as well. I'd love to pick Todd [Murphy]. I'd love to see what he's got to offer."

However, Steven Smith flagged it on Saturday and it was clear from the warm-ups that Murphy wasn't going to make the XI. A first home Test remains elusive. "I hate doing it," Smith said at the toss. "But we keep producing wickets we don't think are going to spin, and seam and cracks are going to play a big part... You get pushed into a corner in a way."

The signs were there last year with only ten overs of spin bowled in the India Test that ended on day three. The cracks, which Smith referenced this year, quickly opened and the same could yet happen here. However, as Joe Root and Harry Brook built their unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 154, it felt like something was lacking, albeit rain limited the day to 45 overs. In search of some variety, Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc sent down a short-pitched spell at Brook that almost brought success.

"I think you've seen over the last three years there's been diminishing results for spin bowlers here which is obviously not something that we'd like, but it's the nature of the surface," Daniel Vettori, Australia's assistant coach and former New Zealand left-arm spinner, said. "I think both teams saw it that way, that the spin bowler hasn't been effective in the last couple of years."

However, the SCG pitches have offered some turn this season, even though pace has dominated. Australia have not made many wrong decisions in this series, and this could still prove correct again, although at 211 for 3, they have ground to make up. Regardless, it raises plenty of questions.

Rarely has there been as much focus on pitches in Australia as in the last few weeks. In recent seasons, the trend had been for more bowler-friendly conditions, but after a second two-day Test in the series, alarm bells were ringing at Cricket Australia headquarters.

The SCG pitch was very green three days out, but curator Adam Lewis said it would have been a concern if it wasn't. There was still a strong tinge at the toss but by mid-afternoon, from a distance at least, it was more straw-coloured. Away from the spinner debate, CA executives were breathing a sigh of relief.

One argument raised is that even if Australia didn't believe conditions warranted spin, they should have found a place for Murphy with an eye on the future, especially as Lyon is sidelined with another serious injury. Even if he returns, he's in the latter stages of his career.

But the World Test Championship (WTC) is a significant element in this. Overall, it has led to more result pitches in Test cricket given there are 12 points for a win and just four for a draw. It has also reduced the number of dead Test matches when series are decided - crucial points are still at stake, something Smith and McDonald have spoken about (England, by contrast, have given the WTC scant regard).

They do still crop up, such as when Australia toured Sri Lanka early last year and took the opportunity to play Cooper Connolly in one Test having already qualified for the final, but the priority is to pick a team to win in the here and now, which is how Australia have viewed it even with the Ashes secured.

The flip side is how to prepare the next generation. "In first-class [cricket] you probably don't get those long spells and probably... a lot of the time the surfaces don't suit either, so you don't get that opportunity," Vettori said. "That's why the A tours and the overseas tours are so important and they become such a huge part of it.

"I think when that time comes, there will definitely be a chance of trying to get one of those guys, because there's a few knocking at the door, the opportunity to develop their craft and learn over long hard days. Then when the opportunity presents, they'll be ready."

With four days of this series to go, Adelaide stands alone for the spinners. That Test produced eight of the nine wickets they have taken this series. Will Jacks could end up sending down the most overs of spin in the series. England, too, omitted a specialist spinner but they had long since set their stall out regarding Shoaib Bashir.

"I think it's probably just a point in time," Vettori said. "I don't think it's going to be something that's going to continue on for years on end. Spin bowling is incredibly important to Test cricket. I think people love watching it when it's at its absolute best and when conditions can suit and assist the spin bowler. But we're just in this stage now where that's not the case. I wouldn't be surprised if it changed in the future."

The dearth of spin in the Ashes - it is currently the fewest deliveries by spinners in Australia in a Test series of at least three matches - has come during a season where in the Sheffield Shield they are averaging 34.16 - the third-best figure of the last ten years. Australia are well stocked for spinners: alongside Murphy, there is Corey Rocchiccioli, Matt Kuhnemann, and Mitchell Swepson could yet come again.

"I don't think going into the series, there was ever that planning or idea that spin wouldn't play a role," Murphy said before the Test. "I think it's sort of just been how it's eventuated. I think it'll evolve from year to year. Next year it could be completely different."

Will this prove a strange summer, the moment when it's decided things have gone too far, or will spin become a truly endangered species in Australia? Only time will tell, but one of the game's great artforms will be desperately hoping that's the case.