Veteran Australian spin bowler Steve O'Keefe wants to see the Aussies play three spinners when they play in a four-Test tour of India early next year.
While the home summer of cricket will be at the forefront of Australian minds - with a host of ODI and T20 cricket to be followed up by two Tests against the West Indies and three against South Africa, the Indian tour, as well as the Ashes next winter, are the big ticket items on the menu in the next 12 months in the longest format of the game.
O'Keefe, who has played strongly in India previously, spoke out on the unique situation confronting Australia, with Mitchell Swepson deserving of another chance having played in Sri Lanka and Pakistan during the currently ongoing home winter, but the need for a second finger spinner being all too real on the sub-continent.
It was reported in the lead up to the second Test against Sri Lanka that Glenn Maxwell could have replaced Mitchell Starc to provide Australia a third spinner and second finger spinner, but ultimately didn't.
"They've given him four Tests now, it's hard to judge a player on that amount of cricket," O'Keefe told cricket.com.au.
"In India, I am a believer that finger spin is such a weapon because … everyone thinks you bowl finger spin so it must be easy, (but) it can still be really hard to get that control. And that asset, you look at the way that the Sri Lankan spinners bowled to us, they were just relentless in regard to their lines and their lengths.
"In regard to Swepson, I'd still continue to stick with him. He's a young fellow who's been thrust the ball in some difficult circumstances against really good players of spin and I think (in Sri Lanka) he held his own."
Alongside Maxwell, who will almost certainly be included on the Indian tour fitness pending, Ashton Agar will be another option for the Aussies, having missed the Tests in Sri Lanka after picking up an injury during the ODI series that was completed prior to the Tests on the same tour.
Jon Holland Matt Kuhnemann were also in the squad and could be looked at as options to travel to India for the next iteration of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which will go to five Tests in the next future tours programme, set to be released by the ICC in the coming weeks.
