Corey Rocchiccioli opens up on spin selection race, Nathan Lyon succession

If Corey Rocchiccioli was a national selector, he would be penning his name in the Australian team in every single match.

But the Western Australian off-spinner, who features in a three-day match against Bangladesh beginning on Thursday in Darwin, is also a pragmatist mindful of the depth of Australia’s stocks as he continues to fine-tune his slow bowling craft.

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With Australia’s heavy work-load over the next 12 months including the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour of India, a country Rocchiccioli travelled to with an Australia A team last year, the 28-year-old is aiming high ahead of the new season.

“I feel like I’ve put a body of work together that allows me to have my name in the conversation,” he said.

“I don’t choose the teams (but) I think if I was a selector, I’d play every game, of course, and I would be a 100 Test player already. But … for me, I think I’ve showcased that if we talk about a different set of foreign conditions, I think my record at the WACA is quite good because of my fight and my bounce.

“I feel like my stats show that I’ve been able to play everywhere around the world and been able to perform. So I certainly feel like if I was to get myself onto that plane, I feel like I’d do a pretty good job.”

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Catching the eye

The rangy Rocchiccioli, who is 190cm tall, is doing such a good job that he has caught the eye of an Australian great.

The Sandgroper has taken 179 wickets in 52 first class games, which includes 122 in the past three Sheffield Shield seasons, something former Australian captain Allan Border described as a great effort given his home ground is the WACA.

“The difficult thing for me and the worrying thing for me was when Nathan (Lyon) didn’t play in the Sydney Test match because of injury and Australia didn’t pick another spinner,” Border told foxsports.com.au.

“But I think that Rocchiccioli from WA … he interests me because he gets people out. It’s one thing to bowl well and get ones and twos, but he’s been getting fives and sixes bowling in Perth, so I think that is a good sign for him.”

Rocchiccioli is eager for the opportunity ahead in Darwin, should he be selected for a Cricket Australia XI, and also for what lies ahead on a domestic front with Western Australia and, potentially, the international scene in coming years.

He has arrived in Darwin fresh from a month training at the new Cricket WA training facility at the redeveloped WACA after getting married during an off-season that included a quick honeymoon in Noosa with his wife Rebecca.

“This is my first pre-season in a couple of years, which has been nice,” he said.

“I think I played 25 first-class games in 18 months, so I had quite a few ailments I needed to sort of saw through – I wouldn’t say get fitter – but I’ve managed to wipe a good few seconds off my 2km (time trial and) ran a 6.36min the other day, which was quite nice for this time of year.

“So … I’ve enjoyed being at home. As much as I would have loved to keep playing cricket and obviously keep performing and keep learning, it’s been nice to be home (this winter).”

Learning from a legend

Rocchiccioli believes he is only now entering the prime of his career and not surprisingly looks to Lyon, who will return to the Australian team for the series against Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay, as an inspiration.

The champion off-spinner told foxsports.com.au last year that spinners learn something new about their craft every season and that is something that the Western Australian aspirant agrees with.

His coach Beau Casson, who played a Test against the West Indies and was recently promoted to head coach in WA after highly-successful coach Adam Voges ended his tenure at the completion of last season, is his primary source of advice.

But Rocchiccioli, who has spent the past month bowling to Cameron Green at the WACA in training, said Ashton Agar had also proven a good sounding board, while he also shares trade tricks with fellow aspirants Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann.

Lyon has offered advice when they have met and he marvels at the ability of the New South Welshman to keep his body in a condition where he has been able to be effective for so long at the top level.

“You’re constantly evolving and I think the word mastery, like Gaz is on his journey to mastery far greater and farther along the line than I am, and I’m obviously a little bit younger than him, but … you’re always striving for it, knowing that you’re never going to get there,” he said.

“But what you do learn along the way is you’ll have moments, whether that might be a moment for me coming up in Darwin, that I learned something 10 games ago in India that I’m able to put into play now, or mentally or physically, things that I’ve tried to work on. They sometimes stick in a game a long way down the line.

“The nature of what we do with our bodies as well … your body’s never in the same state all the time, so you’re always trying to master your body to be able to bowl at your top and be able to develop your skill set.

“Gaz is a genius at what he’s able to do with his body. Technically, the proficiency that he’s got is unbelievable. Like, for a layman and people who don’t bowl off-spin, they sort of just see Gaz do what he does. But when you look at it from the inside, what he does is really awesome, and it shows cases to me that if you spend 10 to 15 years owning your craft, by the time I get to that age, and hopefully I’m still playing, I’m able to do the same thing.”

The spinner with a difference

Rocchiccioli differs from other Australian spinners in the bounce that he is able to generate, which he believes is a positive when bowling at the WACA. As he noted, it is not uncommon for him to enter the attack early in Shield games in Perth.

He notes that what might work for Lyon or Murphy will not necessarily prove the same for him, and vice versa, and that he has honed his craft through experiences across Australia and also in India and England, where he played last winter.

“I don’t have a direct line with Gaz but whenever I see him, I’ll ask him certain things about how he’s going about it. It is the same with Murph and Kuhni (Kuhnemann),” he said

“We’re all bowling off-spin and we’re always trying to like help each other and and learn. Essentially, everyone’s learning on the job. There’s no-one who’s figured it out (completely) so you’re constantly asking. As an offie and a curious offie at that, I’m just asking as many people as I can and seeing where it fits.

“When you’re a young player, you take in a lot of information and you don’t really understand how it fits into your game, (but) then as an older player or a more mature player, you start to figure out how that fits into your own game.

“That’s probably been the difference for me the last couple of years, actually understanding that what works for a 6.3 foot off-spinner might be a little bit different to a 5.6 foot guy who slides them on the sub-continent. So I’m just learning and adapting and sort of just figuring out what’s going to work for me.”

Long live the spinner

Concerns have been raised about the impact of spinners in Australia in recent Test summers given the propensity for green, seaming pitches that have proven bountiful for the nation’s premier pace attack.

Border cited the decision to overlook Murphy at both the MCG and SCG last summer when Lyon was injured, while the champion off-spinner also missed the Gabba Test and a match in the West Indies last year as a worry.

But Shane Warne always stressed that if a pitch seamed, it would spin as well and that is a theory Rocchiccioli subscribes to when insisting chatter about the death of the craft in Australia is misplaced for several reasons.

“It’s actually quite funny because I don’t know if anyone’s really watched the WACA over the last few years but (the pitch) is usually the colour of the outfield most of the time,” he said.

“I was picked a few years ago and then worked out a way to perform … because of the fact of what my spin can offer on those green wickets. I feel like good spinners make themselves perfectly available to be of use all of the time. That’s why Gaz has played 100 and whatever Tests he’s played. It’s why Murph has played the amount of cricket he’s played, and same with Kuhnemann and Zampa. Good spinners make themselves pickable and I feel like that’s always going to be the case.

“Even for a fact of how it helps quicks, I think there was there’s been some studies around that if spinners play, it helps the injury reduction for pace bowlers. So I selfishly hope that spin is in the game for a really long period of time, and I think a good spinner will always be in it, whether we have to add more strings to our bow, whether we have to be really good batters or really good slips catchers … I think it’s got a place in cricket for a long period of time.”