Bracken trying to make the test team as a spinner

SWING bowler Nathan Bracken is trying a new pitch in an attempt to force his way back into the Australian Test squad - he's been working on his spin bowling skills.

Bracken, who was earlier this year ranked the world's No. 1 one-day bowler, has secretly worked on his spinners in the nets and was hoping to unleash them soon in a game.

"I've been practising them a fair bit," he told The Sun-Herald. "I've been bowling them at training but the hardest thing has been trying to get the chance to bowl them in a game."

During the last Sheffield Shield game against Tasmania, where Bracken took a match total of eight wickets, he asked Blues skipper Dominic Thornely for the chance to bowl spin in the second innings.

"I said to Dom the Tasmanians would 'go' me … I knew they'd want to take me on and figured it might have brought us a wicket. He wanted to see how things went but, to his credit, Dom didn't rule the idea out."

Bracken said he was still trying to work out at which pace he should bowl his spinners.

"It's been suggested I look at Colin 'Funky' Miller as an example," he said. "Funky bowled them at about 90 to 95 kilometres an hour.

"He had a fast bowler's mentality because Colin would make sure the batsman couldn't get down to him.

"I was bowling to a few of the younger guys the other day and one of them said during the session he'd just realised I didn't turn the ball. He came down the wicket for the next one and it turned in a big way … But I am still learning."

Bracken said he understood there was still a long way for him to go before Ricky Ponting or Thornely would throw him the ball as a spinner but he was determined to succeed because it would give him extra clout at the selectors' table.

However, he would need his Sydney grade club, or the NSW Second XI side, to allow him the chance to explore life as a spinner under match conditions

good luck mate you can't be any worse than Kamran White

Bizzare....

Doesn't he basically already bowl spinners? He tends to resort to 120 kph cutters in ODI's.

isn't he like the best odi bowler in the wolrld or something

PlanetPakistan wrote:

good luck mate you can't be any worse than Kamran White

Is he related to Cameron Akmal?

Australian spin bowling in further crisis

Hold the phone, doesn't Australia already have a bloke in the team who bowls dibbly-dobbly medium pacers and ordinary spinners? Why would we need another one?

Bracken should just stick to bowling his medium fast swingers and he'll be a shoe-in for the ashes tour. He showed the other day how dangerous he can be on pitches that are doing a bit.

You feeling unwell Trev?

I assume that means you agree with me? I am now.....

To his dying day my old man swore blind that if Ferny had've toured (as he should have) then he would've got a run for both the injured Pidg and out-of-form Diz and would've been the difference between winning 2-1 and losing 2-1.

Henry wrote:I assume that means you agree with me? I am now.....

Didn't say I agreed with you, but that's the first comment I can recall you making on anything to do with Australia that didn't involve some sort of snide dig.

urrkkhhh....mudge and fathead in love-in

Get ****** horrie.

Bracken's naive if he thinks he can grip the ball like a spinner, cut his pace and run up, and produce the goods at test level at the drop of a hat, but if it extends his career - why not?

Because he looks like a girl?

Zat wrote:Because he looks like a girl?

interesting point because now his bowling is going to be a mixture too....

I thought he was a girl?

Trev . . . we know you get a bit mixed up . . .

Zat wrote:Get ****** horrie.

Thinking of getting a t-shirt made with that written in big, bold letters.

doremi wrote:

Zat wrote:Get ****** horrie.

Thinking of getting a t-shirt made with that written in big, bold letters.

nice idea...only prob with that is you would have to pay royalties to me as well as to zimmi who coined the phrase...given zimmi's attitudes to subis and abilities with matches I would be careful about cashing him up