{"id":361352,"date":"2025-12-20T23:23:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T23:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/361352\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T23:23:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T23:23:05","slug":"darren-lehmann-exposes-biggest-issue-for-england-in-county-cricket-spin-bowling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/361352\/","title":{"rendered":"Darren Lehmann exposes biggest issue for England in county cricket, spin bowling"},"content":{"rendered":"

England is on the brink of already losing this year\u2019s Ashes, while a series whitewash could also be on the cards and the knives have quickly come out.<\/p>\n

Watch The Ashes 2025\/26 LIVE and ad-break free during play with FOX CRICKET on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1. <\/a><\/p>\n

Jobs are \u201con the line\u201d for the remainder of the series according to English press, while Darren Lehmann declared Bazball died in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cDone, finished, gone,\u201d he said on ABC Sport.<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t all Lehmann had to say. Rather, the former Australian head coach made headlines after a stunning claim which has cast doubt on just how systemic England\u2019s issues are after a failed tour down under.<\/p>\n

Lehmann was asked at the end of play on Saturday what he thought was behind England\u2019s struggles to produce spin bowling, with the issue only further cast into the spotlight after Shoaib Bashir\u2019s omission in this year\u2019s Ashes series, with the 22-year-old overlooked in favour of all-rounder Will Jacks.<\/p>\n

In response, the now Northamptonshire coach made the stunning claim that he has \u201cnever\u201d spoken to or seen a selector at county cricket.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe problem with Division One cricket is they all play for draws, so the bonus point system makes it flat,\u201d Lehmann told BBC\u2019s Test Match Special.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet your points, you stay up. You know, if you get lucky and have a good day where the ball\u2019s overcast and (it) swings around and you knock them over, you win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cDivision Two is a little bit different. You\u2019re playing for results but you\u2019re still actually playing on flatter wickets that don\u2019t spin as much. You\u2019ve got Dawson who\u2019s quite good, we\u2019ve seen him a bit, Leach is good at Somerset. There are a few spinners there, it\u2019s just who you pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cBashir, I watched him bowl the last two days and they said he\u2019s low on confidence, but what I see is an attacking spinner that can actually get wickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, sometimes you\u2019ve just got to bite the bullet and play the guy if you think he\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummins & Lyon put Aus on brink of win | 03:15<\/p>\n

England spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel said Jacks was selected over Bashir because they were \u201cbacked into a corner\u201d by the team\u2019s batting struggles, telling TNT Sport at the end of the third day at Adelaide that the tourists \u201cneeded that extra batting cover\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Lehmann then shone a light on why the problem may go far deeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, that\u2019s a selection issue, and the selectors \u2013 who are the selectors, by the way? Because I\u2019ve not seen them in my time at county cricket,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never spoken to a selector, I\u2019ve never seen a selector and I\u2019m a county coach. Unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England is on the brink of already losing this year\u2019s Ashes, while a series whitewash could also be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-361352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}