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Test doomsayers failed to foresee--who could?--the resurgence of an ancient cricket art that many believe has brought new life to the game: leg-spin bowling. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Test attacks were dominated by pace bowling (the top 10 wicket-takers in Test history are fast bowlers from this era). The West Indies rose to world dominance with a roster of the blindingly quick, usually selecting four speed bowlers in every Test. Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz also emerged to lead Pakistan's attack; Australians Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson regularly sent batsmen to hospital; Kapil Dev and Richard (now Sir Richard) Hadlee won games single-handedly for India and New Zealand; and Bob Willis and Ian Botham often overcame stronger opposition (and the unreliability of their teammates' batting) to bowl England to victory.
The appearance of so many fast bowlers in world cricket generated great excitement among spectators--Mick Jagger has reportedly said some Rolling Stones tracks were inspired by Lillee's bowling--and fear among batsmen: it was during this time that helmets became the norm. "Back in the early '80s, spin bowling was crushed. Finished," says Pakistan's Abdul Qadir, one of the few leg spinners of that time to consistently represent his nation. "I was the only spin bowler performing equally well with the fast bowlers. People were scared to deliver leg spin." A leg-spin bowler flings the ball with a counterclockwise turn from the back of the wrist. Executed properly, the maneuver presents the batsman with a ball that leaps away from the bat, possibly provoking a catch. But "get it wrong," says leg spinner MacGill, "and you're going to go to the boundary, and fast. The margin for error is tiny."
By the early '90s, crowds and batsmen had become weary of all-pace attacks. Says Hughes, who played 70 Tests from 1977 to 1984: "Facing the four West Indians was very difficult but also very boring, because you knew what to expect. There was no change." A rich harvest awaited the leg spinner able to ply his craft at the top level: a generation of batsmen had become ignorant of leg spin bowling through lack of exposure to it. In 1992, Australia selected leg spinner Shane Warne to play his first Test, against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Seldom has a Test debut been so closely monitored: Australia had been searching for a great leg spinner since before World War II.
Warne, who Hughes says "has single-handedly changed the face of cricket," was not an immediate success. In fact, by midway through his third Test match the stocky blond had taken just one wicket and given away 335 runs. Few international cricketers have had a worse start to their career. But Warne delivered a barnstorming finish (three wickets in 13 balls) to win that third match, followed by a successful series against the West Indies. Then, with his first delivery in an Ashes Test, at Old Trafford in 1993, he produced the so-called "ball of the century": a looping monster that curled wide of batsman Mike Gatting's legs before slicing across to hit the stumps.
Along with Warne--now, with 313 wickets, the 11th highest wicket-taker in Test history--have come a burst of leg spinners: Paul Strang from Zimbabwe, Pakistan's Mushtaq Ahmed, and India's Anil Kumble. Even the West Indies has joined the leg-spin trend: Dinanath Ramnarine has taken nine wickets in his first two Test matches. "It was like a bright sunshine came over Test cricket in the Caribbean," says Tony Becca, cricket writer for the Jamaica Gleaner. "There is a new appreciation of the guile of the spin bowler and the battle between bat and ball."
Battle has certainly been joined: the best batsmen of the '90s, says Hughes, "might be the most exciting players that have been in the last 50 years." India's Sachin Tendulkar is, says Benaud, "one of the greats." Among the most unpredictable is Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya, who began his career as a one-day specialist basher but who last year played an extraordinary Test innings against India. Says Australian captain Taylor: "Teams have started using one-day cricket to form the basis of their Test sides. Jayasuriya has thought, Why don't I just do what I do in the one-day games? And all of a sudden he's scored 340 runs." Jayasuriya was reportedly upset at being dismissed, which denied him a chance to attack the Test record highest score of 375, held by West Indian Brian Lara, another '90s phenomenon.
The way records are tumbling in Test cricket these days, who's to say Lara's mark won't be beaten in Australia? Mark Taylor, who became the first Australian in more than 30 years to hit a Test triple-century during his team's defeat of Pakistan in a three-Test series last month, leads the clear favorites going in to the First Test, despite the likely absence of an ailing Warne. Most Australian observers are sharply united on the subject of the English team: "They're shockers," says Hughes. "They might get slaughtered." Asks Rodney Hogg, a former Australian vice-captain: "Why would you go to watch an English cricketer at the moment? Have they got anyone exciting? Can anybody say anything nice about them?"
Very few. Says Peter Perchard, editor of English magazine The Cricketer: "I can't see many people putting money on England. We may well win one Test, but I don't see a hope in hell that we'll win the series. Australia have got better batsmen and better bowlers and better fielders." Wisden editor De Lisle is only slightly more optimistic: "I think England have a chance of drawing 2-2, but they don't have a realistic chance of winning." Richie Benaud, however, recalls that in 1986 Mike Gatting brought to Australia a team condemned as "England's worst" and won the Ashes: "If the England players think along the same lines as some of their supporters and the media, they needn't bother coming here. As it is, the players have a bit more heart than that." Mark Taylor shares Benaud's caution: "People who don't play the game think some wins are easy. You never think that as a player."
Stuart MacGill doesn't need to be told. He already anticipates even more anxiety playing against England than he felt in his traumatic first Test at the beginning of the year. "This is the highest-profile series an Australian can play in," he says "You always dream of being in an Ashes series." As Test cricket advances into the new millennium, another generation of children will be able to share that dream.