Smith eyes Zampa’s bag of tricks ahead of Bangla showdown

After a fortunate rain-escape in their opening Group A clash against New Zealand on Friday, Steve Smithis expecting better returns in their showdown against Bangladesh. Ahead of their must-win fixture tomorrow at The Oval, the Australian captain hinted that the leg-spinner Adam Zampa may come into the side.

"It is a used wicket, the same one that South Africa and Sri Lanka played on yesterday,” he said. “And The Oval can take some spin, so we've certainly got that in our mind. But again, we'll have to have a look tomorrow.”

It would be Zampa’s first international appearance in England and just his 23rd One-Day international. But despite his relative inexperience, the 25-year-old has packed plenty of big-game exposure into his career to date. As a limited-overs specialist, his control of line, mixed with the leg-spinner’s bag of tricks – Zampa’s party piece is a fizzing, sliding googly – has seen him emerge as one of world cricket’s most bankable slow bowlers.

A star of Australia’s Big Bash and contracted with Rising Pune Supergiant in this year’s IPL, Zampa has now got the gig as the sole frontline spinner in Australia’s ICC Champions Trophy squad, and it’s not hard to see why. With an economy rate of 5.46 in ODIs and an outstanding 6.05 in his 10 T20Is to date, Smith will be looking for Zampa to add greater control to his bowling stocks.

Another element for consideration in composing the final XI, he added, would be the weather forecast, with rain scheduled for London on Monday.

Smith also noted that they will “certainly look at” playing an extra frontline bowler.

“It looks like it is going to be a pretty good wicket,” he said. “And there are usually quite a few runs scored at The Oval as well.”

Setting his attention on the side’s batting, Smith believes the world champions have a game plan that has served them well: accumulate early, go big late.

“We play One-Day cricket [the way] we have for a long period of time in these tournaments,” he said. “And that's someone in the top four going on to make a big score and letting our boys who are big hitters and strong have a crack at the back.”

Asked how his fast bowling group responded to his fierce criticism following their fortunate rain escape against New Zealand, Smith reiterated his belief in their class.

"They were pretty fiery in the nets today,” he joked. “I copped quite a few short ones so maybe they are listening, which is good. As I said it wasn't our best performance, hopefully it was a little bit of rust.”

As for their opposition, Smith highlighted the strength of the Bangladesh batting, tallying 305-6 in their competition opener against England on Thursday.

"We saw Tamim Iqbal the other day play a really good innings,” he said. “Mushfiqur [Rahim], the keeper, he's a good young player. They've got some good players in their group. And Mustafizur [Rahman] obviously is a class bowler.”

The Monday fixture is the first of two day-night matches in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, beginning at 1:30pm local time.