Why can't the Australians play high-quality spin? Most of the current top-order have batted against Shane Warne in the nets every day of their working lives. And either Colin Miller or Stuart MacGill, sometimes both, have been whirling away alongside Warne on most tours. Yet the Australians still have a tendency to freeze in front of a good spinner. The bowlers who have done the damage in recent years are not mugs and do take wickets against other countries. Daniel Vettori, the current mischief-maker, might only be 22 but he is already a high quality Test bowler. Harbhajan Singh was irresistible in India earlier this year while Muttiah Muralitharan seems to be irresistible anywhere, anytime. Saqlain Mushtaq has also had some good times against Australia - which is why Steve Waugh pointedly calls him the best offspinner in the game.

Ricky Ponting, a fine back-foot player of fast bowling, said after his disastrous tour of India that he had found it very difficult to start innings against Harbhajan. When you have grown up on fast, bouncy pitches it is easy to fall into the trap of concentrating more on playing pace.

Given the decline in spin bowling in the previous decade - before the advent of Warne and those who followed - emerging batsmen in Australia had not been exposed to it. Pace was all, and so the challenge of settling in and working singles at the start of an innings is much more difficult when the ball comes to you slowly. Technically that presents problems. Mentally too, as an uncertain batsman can have too much time to think about what he should do.

In Sydney today a newspaper ran a story saying there were few new spinners coming through the Australian system, although Victoria and Tasmania have just picked new young slow bowlers.

Given all this there was some irony in the fact that Warne batted so well. He has more talent as a batsman than his career stats suggest, and perhaps in his later years as a Test player he will compensate for the shortcomings of the middle years.

Mark Ray has covered Australian cricket since 1987 and is also the author of a number of books on the game.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd