Prolific left-hander Mike Hussey has asked Australian selectors to choose a specialist spinner for the first Test against India starting December 26 and hoped leg-spinner Stuart MacGill will be able to make the cut.
MacGill has seen a specialist about the hand and wrist problem that caused him to experience numbness during the Hobart Test against Sri Lanka and will have scans on Monday.
As national selectors consider confronting India with a four-pronged pace attack, for the first time since Perth in 1991-92, on a bouncy drop-in wicket at the MCG, Hussey strongly endorsed a more traditional line-up.
"I'm sure they will look at it, but if it were me personally making the decisions, I believe we do need a spinner in Test match cricket.
"The game is not just played on the first day when the ball is brand new, it's played over five whole days and the pitch deteriorates," Hussey was quoted as saying by The Age.
"There is definitely a place, I think, for a top class spinner to play a huge role in the Australian team, and I'm hoping it is Stuart MacGill. I hope he can get himself as close to 100 per cent fit as possible because Stuey at 100 per cent is a damn fine bowler and his record speaks for itself," the middle-order batsman said.
MacGill is also battling a degenerative knee injury and deciding whether to have surgery that would rule him out of the India series but, hopefully, have him fit for the closing stages of the domestic season and the Test tours that follow.
If he is unavailable for the Melbourne Test, the selectors would either call on Brad Hogg or opt for a pace quartet of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson and one of Shaun Tait or Ben Hilfenhaus.
