Tom Andrews, Cooper Connolly suggested for Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka amid left-arm spinner shortage

Like Tom Andrews. Over the past few days several players inside and outside the Test squad have spoken to new skipper Steve Smith about the form of Sydney Thunder left-arm spinner Andrews.

Andrews won’t be chosen in Australia’s squad for the two Tests against Sri Lanka because fellow Matt Kuhnemann is expected to be cleared to tour on Wednesday despite finger surgery.

And if Kuhnemann is ruled out mid-tour it would make more sense to recall Ashton Agar.

But the fact that he was even talked about in high places spotlights the fact that when it comes to left-arm spinners, left field can quickly become centrefield for a nation which has spent more than a century scratching its collective heads for options.

The 30-year-old South Australian Andrews recently retired from professional cricket and went off to pursue a career as a financial planner in Adelaide after playing 17 first class matches with a bowling average of over 50 runs per wicket before being picked up as a left-field choice by the Thunder for whom he has performed solidly.

Australia’s left-arm depth is so shallow that there is every chance that boom young West Australian Cooper Connolly will play in the first Test against Sri Lanka without ever taking a first class wicket.

Primarily a batsman, Connolly has bowled just 96 balls in four first class games without a victim.

There are whispers the Galle track could be so spin friendly that every child could win a prize, but even so his selection would represent an extraordinary gap in the system which Australia has never been able to fill in his Test history.

Shane Warne (708 Test wickets) flew the flag for leg-spin with most wickets for his country for a made of that craft, Glenn McGrath (563) remained the top quick and Nathan Lyon (530) the runaway star of off-spin, former Victorian Jack Saunders, cricket’s invisible man, is Australia’s leading left-arm spinner with just 79 wickets.

Saunders, who reportedly bowled with a suspect action, took his 79 Test wickets in 14 Tests, dying 97 years ago, aged 51, in Toorak. Over the years sightings of potentially outstanding left-arm spinners in Australia have been a bit like Loch Ness monster sightings with plenty of early excitement but no substantial follow up.

What makes this statistic more unexplainable and niggling is that no-one has to tell the national selectors how important this type of bowler is in the modern game when there are frequent visits to the Indian subcontinent.

Chairman of selectors George Bailey basically made an open plea for someone of this craft to step up to the plate at a recent press conference.

“I’m happy to very much throw it out there that it is an incredible skill set in the subcontinent and we’ve seen that for many years,” Bailey said.