But selectors tell spinner he's a chance

Hogg's Test days are over - Jenner

Cricinfo staff

October 11, 2007

Brad Hogg: "This is the first time they have given me an inkling that I am a huge chance of playing" © AFP

Brad Hogg has been lifted by the news his Test career is not over, but the spin coach Terry Jenner has warned Australia's selectors not to be swayed by his exceptional one-day form. Jenner wants to protect his young prospects Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey from an early elevation and is pushing for Stuart MacGill to replace Shane Warne.

"No matter what you see [Hogg] bowl in the one-day arena his Test days are gone," Jenner said in the Courier-Mail. "It's common sense. When you bowl ten overs and you fire in two wrong'uns an over and bowl wicket to wicket they are either going to come at you because they have to or just work you for singles."

Australia's first Test engagement without Warne is next month's two-game series against Sri Lanka before a four-match contest with India starting on Boxing Day. "What Hoggy has done is exceptional, he is the best one-day spinner in the world, but that doesn't make you a Test spinner where you have to show yards and yards of patience," Jenner said. "That ten overs doesn't equate to bowling for a day-and-a-half at the MCG."

However, Hogg, 36, feels he has a chance to add to his four Tests, the last of which came against Zimbabwe in 2003-04. "The [selectors] just said I have an opportunity to play Test cricket this year so that lifted my spirits a fair bit and gave me a fair goal," Hogg, who is performing strongly in the series in India, said in the Sydney Morning Herald. "That is one of the things I really want to do. This is the first time they have given me an inkling that I am a huge chance of playing."

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