Out of favour Oz pacer Bracken turns to spin to win Test recall

Sydney, Dec. 7 : Out of favour Australian left-arm swing bowler Nathan Bracken is trying to force his way back into the Australian Test squad as a spinner.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Bracken, who was ranked the world''s No. 1 one-day bowler, has secretly been working on his spinners in the nets and is hoping to unleash them soon in a game.

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

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. (ANI)

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