Zampa coming into his own but still not at his best

Rinse and repeat, every game? Adam Zampa was asked after his first productive outing (4/47) of the World Cup against Sri Lanka in Lucknow. “Yeah, well, wish wrist spin was that easy,” he answered.

Zampa’s big plus in T20 cricket is his unpredictability. Having plied his trade in leagues around the word, that’s where his brand of wrist-spin shines through. No Shane Warne, Zampa makes no bones about being a classical leg-spinner. Slowly coming into his own in the ongoing World Cup, one more wicket on Saturday against Bangladesh will take him to the top of the leading wicket-taking charts (21). In a tournament being played in India, with spinners expected to play a decisive role, he’s the only spin representative in the top-five.

In the same interview, Zampa kept shaking his head in disapproval of his performance. “Not at my best. I am a good critic of myself and I think I could have bowled a little bit better,” he had said. Zampa was reflecting more on his two previous outings; the first two matches of the competition for Australia in spin-friendly Chennai and Lucknow – versus India and South Africa - where he was outperformed by the opposition spinners. That’s also when he wasn’t at his full fitness due to back spasms.

Despite not being at his best, Zampa came out better against Sri Lanka, with three wickets to his sucker ball, the googly. Soon, his subtle variations began to work and wickets followed.

“It was a very difficult start through injuries and illness to be able to actually play…the first three games were an amazing effort because I think he was pretty close to pulling out against Pakistan. So, to see him get through that has been the starting point,” said Daniel Vettori, Australia’s bowling coach.

“His control of his length has been the best that I've seen in this period of time, particularly through those three games where he took four wickets in a row and then against England, I think his length of control. We all know the skills and the variations, but his ability to actually just land the ball on the spot, time and time again gave most teams limited opportunities to attack him,” he added.

Babar Azam fell to Zampa’s wrong 'un, he spun a web around Netherlands batters and against England, he got the two powerful left-handers Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali out, caught in the deep by beating them in flight. “I think in the England game, he didn't go for a boundary; he might not have gone for anything more than a single against two left-handers Stokes and Moeen who are very good players to spin. I think that's been the testament in that.” Control marrying Zampa’s skills has made him ‘unplayable’, thinks Vettori.

With the big semi-final coming up next week against South Africa, who have two quality spinners of their own in Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, for Zampa, bragging rights would be at stake.

Teams are also keeping one eye on how playing conditions would be and whether dew would be a factor in the knock-out matches. “We're definitely concerned about it in Ahmedabad. I think that affected our conversations around the toss (against England) because I think two days before at training was some of the dampest,” said Vettori.

“But I think the thing that overrides all that is that first 10 to 15 overs with swing bowling and seam bowling have been a huge part of the tournament. If you think back to that game, Zampa 3 for 21, it didn't affect him. So, I think there's a lot of things in favour to make you think you can work through that dew aspect.”