Say what you want about Bryce McGain’s Test debut, but few people will forget it. That is what happens when you are a 36-year-old making your debut, forget how to bowl and go at over eight runs an over. People find those sorts of things hard to forget.

Not only has Bryce put his career in a terminal position (by that I mean six feet under), he may have sounded the death-knell for the next generation of spinners.

Australia has been rotating through spinners like Mark Nicholas does superlatives. Bryce is the best performed at state level, by some margin, so his colossal thrashing doesn’t say much for the boys behind him.

People like Terry Jenner, Brydon Coverdale and, well, me, will tell people that in state cricket Bryce never loses control like that, that his length has military precision and that he is the best slow bowler in Australia.

That is all dandy, but this was a man having a monumental case of the yips. When I interviewed Bryce for this very publication he said, “It doesn’t matter how hard they come at me, I wont forget how to bowl”.

He did forget how to bowl, he lost all faith in himself, he lost the ability to trust his basic motor skills and he may have lost a career.

When he made that quote he was talking about Sehwag, Tendulkar and VVS – three men that can take down any spinner. He was not talking about Ashwell Prince, Jacques Kallis and AB DeVilliers.

Ricky Ponting had pretty much no faith in spinners before this event, so Bryce may have poured some kerosene onto that.

He was the last card – there is no one left – and Australia are already looking at basing their attack around the boring cornerstone of four pacemen and part-time spinners.

There was a time when Australians would throw the ball to a spinner as an attacking option. That time has passed.

Now my advice to any young Australian batsman would be simple: learn to spin.

Jrod is an Australian cricket blogger. His site Cricketwithballs.com won last July’s Best of Blogs in TWC

In the Boxing Day Test, Australia had a line up of Hayden, Katich, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Symonds, Haddin, Lee, Johnson, Hauritz and Siddle. South Africa took their lunch money.

For the series-clinching win in Durban it was: Hughes, Katich, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, North, Haddin, McDonald, Johnson, Siddle and Hilfenhaus. South Africa were left bruised and asking for their mummy.

Four new players, South Africa had the same 11 players for the first five Tests (which is a feat in Test cricket).

Look at the players who are gone: Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz and Andrew Symonds.

Hayden was past his use by date and Phillip Hughes was smashing down the door without grace, but with lots of force.

Lee was unfit, underweight, and heartbroken; Ben Hilfenhaus was averaging under 20 with the ball for Tasmania.

Hauritz was a club spinner, Andrew McDonald may not be a world-class Test bowler but he has brought more control to the side.

Symonds went from Australia’s go-to batsman, to a hobbled, drunken distraction. Marcus North came in and gave Australia a sea of calm.

With the exception of Hauritz, the three others are former marquee men. They were capable of changing results of Tests, possessors of superhuman skills and players who were important parts of the old regime.

Australia was backing them as class acts, as proven performers, as good ol’ boys. The selectors barked the oft-heard phrase, “form is temporary, class is permanent”.

Apparently class is temporary; sometimes age, injury and life get in the way.

Once the team was changed, and along with it a new defensive attitude, this team has been transformed, a lot quicker than any level-headed expert would have thought.

This is now Ricky Ponting’s team, it’s fresh and bereft of champions but it is winning against the team that everyone thought was going to become the No.1 side in the world.

Michael Hussey might have done a Jimmy Adams with his average, (31 over the last 12 months) but can be replaced with someone in form or find his mojo. Lee is finally fit and sounds mentally right, Stuart Clark will be back soon and Andrew McDonald is still in the side.

No team should be able to win three straight Tests with Andrew McDonald in it.

When a team is performing like this and has a lot of improvement in them, it is bound to give the chills to a few teams the world over.

There was a time when Australia thought a defensive field was anything less than three slips and a short leg. Now they think an attacking field has only two sweepers.

Australian cricket has changed, maybe not forever, but for the time being the attacking instincts are on hold. It would be easy to say it happened when Warne and McGrath left but the change in outlook didn’t happen till the losses started.

Well it started after one loss in particular – forget the mess in India, because none of that makes sense. When South Africa chased down 414 in Perth it changed Australia’s mindset. Jason Krejza was picked for that match, he went for four runs an over. Since that time Australia has picked at least one defensive bowler to stem the flow if the game goes bad. And Jason Krejza hasn’t been close to selection, even though in the Test before he took 12 wickets.

When they arrived in South Africa they took it one step further, picking only three front-line bowlers – and Andrew McDonald. McDonald’s medium pace is a weird, mutant version of Mark Ealham and Jacob Oram. It’s always online, it has movement, it’s fairly slow and completely unremarkable. But it is tough to score against.

There is not a time in history that he would be regarded as a front-line bowler. He is a bowling plug. Australia don’t care. They lost two series and got sick of losing. McDonald’s job is to block up one end, while two of the most exciting fast bowling prospects in the world are released at the other end.

McDonald has played two Tests – Australia has won them both. He has taken five wickets in those two matches; Siddle and Johnson have 26. He has helped them take those wickets.

Australian fans of the past would be screaming at every TV in the land at this betrayal of the Australian attacking spirit but Australians have just watched Australia lose two series in the space of two months. Australians hate losing way more than they hate winning ugly. Australian fans are already backing this limp defensive conservative approach – don’t expect that to change while Australia wins.

As for the team, they used the attacking mode when that worked for them, now they will use the defensive mode until that stops working. Then, when they start attacking again, they will accuse other teams of playing defensively. Without a touch of irony.

I would prefer Australia picked four front-line bowlers without a defensive option but I would also prefer Ricky Ponting didn’t spit into his hands every 30 seconds, that Brad Haddin would revel in being a cheat and for Natalie Portman to say she loves legspinners.

Jrod is a legspinner, as well as an Australian cricket blogger. His site Cricketwithballs.com won last July’s Best of Blogs in TWC

You may not have heard of Bryce McGain but within the next month he is going to be the oldest debutante for Australia in decades. If he performs, he could be Australia’s main weapon over the next two years. If not, he could become a punch line. Whatever happens he has struggled longer and harder than most to get the opportunity.

If Australia choose four pacemen for the Test at the Wanderers, he may have to wait until Australia make it to Cape Town. For some players, being this close to making their debut for their country would be excruciating but Bryce knows how to wait.

Bryce is 36. That’s a lot of waiting. Two years ago he was a club cricketer (for Prahran) with a handful of first-class games to his name, a son he shares custody of and a day job as an IT banker. But he had a dream, one that no one else believed in. He thought he was good enough to play cricket for Australia. At 34 in club cricket others would have sniggered.

Bryce just kept on plugging away and when Victoria realised they needed a full-time spinner, as Cameron White pretty much refused to bowl himself, Bryce was brought in. It is said that White and Warne were the reasons Bryce was never picked for Victoria earlier. In truth Warne never played for Victoria, and White played as a batsman since 2004. The selectors just never thought he was good.

They saw a 30-something guy, who by his own admission didn’t really learn the trade till he was 28, as a good club cricketer who could on occasion cash-in on spin-happy pitches. Bryce didn’t share their thoughts. He saw himself as a terrifically fit, mature cricketer who knew his game inside and out and knew that as a legspinner he was just hitting his peak.

Turns out he was right. Once the Vics brought him in as a full time option, at 34, he starred. He took more wickets than any other spinner in Shield cricket (38 at 34), was the leading wicket-taker in the one-day competition and was a big part of Victoria’s second Twenty20 championship. Eventually the Australian selectors were impressed and he got himself a ticket to India as the No.1 spinner.

His selection was deserved but only came through a freakish 14 months for Australia where Warne retired, Stuart MacGill’s TV show got popular and Brad Hogg finished playing when his wife got sick.

But it would have been too simple from there for Bryce just to make the side and play. Instead he couldn’t shake off a shoulder injury and as Cameron White struggled, Bryce flew home. The simple shoulder injury turned into a major operation and while Australia tried Nathan Hauritz and Jason Krejza, Bryce had to watch. Finally recovered, he had one first-class match to earn his spot for the South African tour. He took a five-wicket haul and was selected.

This time he travelled fully fit and yet again as Australia’s No.1 spin option. It should have gone smoothly, but he missed the team plane, got smashed in the only practice game, and then couldn’t bowl in the second innings due to a stomach bug. Other cricketers may worry, but life has thrown tougher obstacles at Bryce. He is on the cusp of doing something that no one thought he could do anyway.

Bryce represents every person who has ever held onto a dream and never given up hope. He is us, sitting in our cubicle, hating our job, dreaming of playing for our country. With a bit of luck, one of us just might do it.