Spin star wants to keep chasing Warnie
Success in franchise cricket has not skewed Australian spinner Adam Zampa’s view that it “hits different” wearing the green and gold as he eyes off his 100th ODI this week against England.
Zampa will join Shane Warne and Brad Hogg as the only spinners to reach the 50-over milestone. The 32-year-old conceded he was not sure how many more he would get, with the future of the format clouded as T20 becomes the more favoured white-ball game.
Having played more for Australia than he ever thought, the multiple World Cup winner sees no end in sight given his passion for playing for his country.
“While I’m enjoying playing for Australia, I feel like I’m bowling good enough and want to improve. I’ll just continue to roll through,” Zampa said at Trent Bridge, site of Thursday’s opening ODO clash.
“I really love playing for this group, under this coaching staff. While I’m enjoying it, there’s no reason to think about an end date.
“I never thought I’d play this much for Australia, so it’s great to be playing that hundredth ODI. I have my family here - my wife, my son, my parents - it’s going to be a nice occasion.”
While he regrets missing the chance to play an Ashes Test, something he thinks has now passed him by, Zampa revels in every Australian success, which comes with extra juice compared with the T20 competitions he plays in around the world, including The Hundred in the UK, where he won the 2024 title with Oval Invincibles.
“The feeling of playing for your country and still winning for your country beats playing franchise cricket and winning franchise cricket,” he said.
“I experienced The Hundred, it was great, I loved playing it, and winning at the end is a bonus, but it hits different when you play for your country, when you win world cups. Still got that drive to win many more.”
The drive includes playing ODIs for as long as they are still around, as Zampa looks to climb up the list of all-time wicket-takers in the format, already sitting ninth with 169, behind only Warne for spinners.
“There’s been a lot of questions about the ODI format and what that looks (like) going forward,” he said.
“There’s been a lot said about how it’s a saturated market, but all these different competitions give other guys opportunities, whether it’s guys who have just played a little bit of BBL or a bit of Blast, there’s opportunities to go and improve yourself at different franchise levels, even if they are going on at the same time, which seems to be the case at the moment.
“But it feels like playing for your country is still the priority. I don’t know what it’s going to look like in the next few years, particularly with this format, but I feel like ODI cricket’s still a really good format, I still enjoy playing it and I think a lot of young guys coming through still see it as a good opportunity to play for your country.”
