Adam Zampa’s head is a perfectly normal-shaped head.
We know this and so, thanks to a recent close shave, does Adam Zampa.
The Australian leg-spinner revealed in a broadcast interview that curiosity about the shape of his noggin was the reason he shed his dubiously-styled mullet and, while lovers of retro salads may be disappointed, his teammates are likely to be relieved that - unlike Samson - he was not shorn of his power along with his blonde locks.
For the shape that matters is the flight of his leg-spin and, in particular, his googly.
It was a beaut of the genre that dismissed Jason Mohammed, a full delivery that pitched on middle and leg stumps, leaving a bamboozled Mohammed playing for the turn but instead leaving a gap for the ball to deflect off his pads onto the stumps.
And it was an even better one that soon after flummoxed the experienced Kieron Pollard, who tried to turn the ball down the leg side only to see his own stumps shattered.
For all that was hoped for an Australian touring squad missing many of its biggest names, few have enhanced their white ball reputations.
But Zampa has solidified his position as Australia’s go-to spinner in limited-overs matches. He was wicketless in the first three T20 Internationals but, apart from a Chris Gayle onslaught in the second match, he has maintained a decent economy rate and regularly threatened on pitches that suit him.
But his performance with bat and ball in the second ODI highlighted Australia’s twin spin dilemmas; as a whole, they struggle to play it and they don’t seem to have the confidence to employ it.
So it was that, although debutante Ashton Turner took the wicket of a well-set Shai Hope with just his second ODI delivery - beating the outside of his bat to knock over off stump - and had figures of 1 for 6 after his first two overs, Alex Carey removed him from the attack.
When Turner did return in the 32nd over, by which point West Indies needed just 35 runs for victory, his first ball again turned sharply, fizzing past the outside edge of Nicholas Pooran’s bat. Soon after he was unlucky not to have Pooran’s wicket, another ripping delivery catching the edge only to be dropped by Matthew Wade at first slip.
Turner’s final figures of 1 for 37 were also marred in the final over when a leg side wide beat Carey and Wade and rocketed to the boundary for five extras but he had done enough to raise questions as to why he only bowled six overs on a pitch that made batting against spin a serious challenge.
While the ODIs are important in their own right, as part of the qualification pathway for the 2023 World Cup, the focus of this tour is primarily on Australia’s options ahead of the T20 World Cup in October and November.
The pitches of the UAE and Oman are expected to be spin-friendly; these matches in the Caribbean and Bangladesh are supposed to help Australia prepare for those conditions.
If anything, this tour has shown how much Australia miss the part-time offspin of Glenn Maxwell, perhaps almost as much as they miss his batting.
Ashton Agar’s injury has limited his appearances to two T20s and, apart from a solitary appearance by Mitchell Swepson in the fifth T20I - the only time Australia played two spinners was on the least spin-friendly pitch at Saint Lucia - and the six overs from Turner, Zampa has carried the spin can.
And it’s noticeable that Tanveer Sanga is on his third tour with the Australian squad this year and has yet to play a match. The T20s in Bangladesh now provide the selectors’ only chance to see him at international level before the World Cup.
But Australia’s batting against spin has also been laid bare on this tour as a significant issue; Hayden Walsh Jnr has taken 18 wickets across the seven matches so far, the Australian batters struggling against his wily attacking leg-spin.
And while Walsh Jnr took just one wicket in the second ODI, trapping Mitchell Starc lbw, the left-arm fingerspin of Akeal Hosein did the necessary damage to the middle order.
Carey looked particularly uncomfortable and tried charging Hosein only to completely miss the ball, while Moises Henriques awkwardly swiped at a wide delivery and edged to Jason Holder in the slips and Turner prodded forward to a ball that spun past the outside of his bat and took out off stump.
While Wade and Zampa mounted a decent rescue partnership to take Australia to a total of 187, it is hardly flattering to Justin Langer’s batting side that Wes Agar, coming in at No.10 on his ODI debut, made the highest score, with 41 runs off 36 deliveries.
In reply, West Indies lost wickets early and at five for 72 it appeared the series was all but Australia’s to claim.
But the patient half-centuries of Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder, who passed 50 for the first time in ODIs since the 2019 World Cup, provided a stark contrast in playing the conditions; seeing off the dangerous Mitchell Starc, batting conservatively to the spinners and sparingly choosing their moments to attack.
Australia may yet win the series decider on Tuesday, Australian time, on what will likely be another turning pitch. Turner may have earned himself more overs, or another spinner may be brought in to supplement Zampa. And Australia may finally have worked out how to play Walsh Jnr or Hosein.
But, unlike the outline of Zampa’s crown, the shape of Australia’s plans for bowling and facing spin remains somewhat unclear.
