MacGill likely to play at spin-friendly Hobart

Brad Hodge replaces Simon Katich for next week's Test against the West Indies at Hobart © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting believes the pitch for the second Test at Hobart, starting next Thursday, will favour spin. The Australian captain should know. He is also the Tasmanian captain and the Bellerive Oval is his home ground.

"It will spin, there's no doubt about that," Ponting told The Australian. "It's not one that breaks up and spins as much as Sydney does. Saying that, I think [Shane] Warne and [Stuart] MacGill are going to turn it on most surfaces anyway. I expect the wicket down there to be fairly slow and a bit bouncy on the first day and then flatten out and start turning later in the game," was his prediction.

In the ways of Australian cricket, the captain is not part of the selection panel but his views must carry considerable weight. Ponting's could mean the inclusion of both leg-spinners, Warne and MacGill, in the final XI.

"They certainly worked well together in the last few opportunities they've had to play with each other," Ponting said. "The Super Test [when MacGill had nine wickets, Warne six] was just phenomenal. They were bowling to the best batsmen in the world there and made quite a few of them look reasonably silly. It's a great prospect for the team to have two guys of that calibre just waiting in the wings." There is even the possibility they will be supplemented by the respectable off-spin of Andrew Symonds, recalled to the squad of 12 announced yesterday. For their part, the West Indies, as usual, placed all their eggs in the same fast bowling basket from the time they named the 15 for the tour and the spin they carry into the second Test, such as it is, will be the casual off-breaks of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels that supplement their primary role as batsmen.

Symonds and Brad Hodge were called in to replace Shane Watson and Simon Katich. Watson, the strongly built allrounder, has been eliminated for the rest of the season by the dislocated left shoulder he sustained in the field in the first Test. Hodge, the 30-year-old right-hander, earns Katich's place on the combination of his own consistent form over recent seasons for Victoria, and for Australia in one-day internationals, and Katich's low-scoring sequence. The left-hander averaged 27.55 in the Ashes series in England followed by 0 (run out) and 2 in the Super Test against the ICC World team and 0 in his only innings in the first Test in Brisbane.

Symonds, a powerful middle-order batsman, fielder supreme and bowler capable of off-spin or medium-pace seam, played his maiden Test against Sri Lanka in March last year. Symonds has yet to carry his performances in one-day internationals, where he is a certainty for Australia, to a higher level. His 163 off 183 balls for Queensland in a Pura Cup inter-state match against South Australia last week reveals his present form.

"Symonds has been in red-hot form with the bat, and his medium-pace and off-spin adds a lot of options to the bowling attack," said Trevor Hohns, the chief selector and a former Test spinner himself. "He thoroughly deserves his opportunity at Test level again." Hohns said Katich has fallen short of expectations and "it was time to give someone else an opportunity". Hodge has the recommendations of a first-class average of 46 in 166 matches with 37 hundreds.

The second Tests starts at Hobart on November 17 with the West Indies seeking to shake off the shock of a comprehensive defeat by 379 runs in Brisbane.