If you think you know how bad Australia’s spin options are – you really don’t. Forget about Cameron White’s straight’uns and Jason Krejza’s confusing cameo in this Test.

Back home the truth is even uglier. Three games into the domestic season and the number one spinning wicket-taker is Marcus North with six wickets.

Marcus North is a batsman, a good one and as a spinner is someone you bowl before a break, or when your state doesn’t want to pick a real spinner. His career first-class bowling average is 44.

Next on the list is Nathan Hauritz, occasional Australian tourist with a career first-class bowling average of 49 and he has five wickets halfway through his third game. How he still gets a first-class game for NSW is unclear.

Behind him is Andrew Symonds, the best-performed finger-spinner Australia has had since Colin Funky Miller and still in the doghouse over his fishing.

Then Adam Voges, another batsman, who gets a bowl when Marcus North is tired.

Rounding off the top five is Aaron O’Brien of South Australia, who has a career first-class bowling average of over 70 and a career batting average of 25. He proves if you can hold a bat you can get a game for South Australia at the moment.

That is what Australia has to pick from.

They haven’t had the best of luck with their spinners. Shane Warne retires to spend time with the ladies, Brad Hogg retires to tend to his sick lady and Stuart MacGill retires because the fat lady was singing.

Then they find Cricket With Balls own Nice Bryce McGain in an internet café searching dating sites, they offer him the job, he takes it but his arm is stuffed from all those years of moving his mouse around and he can’t bowl.

So what do they have left: a batsman who doesn’t bowl himself in White and an offspinner with a terrible record on the field and not much better off it in Krejza.

Not to forget Beautiful Beau Casson who went from being a Test cricketer to not being a regular in his state side without playing a game in between.

There are young spinners coming through, Jon Holland from Victoria has impressed in his first year and Steve Smith from NSW looks like a real talent.

Unfortunately Dan Cullen, Xavier Doherty and Cullen Bailey have been “coming through” for so long now it looks like they have gotten lost.

All Australia have are part-timers: White, North, Symonds and Voges. And journeymen: Krejza, Hauritz, Casson, and O’Brien. They do not have a spin dilemma; they simply don’t have any spinners.

Jrod is an Australian cricket blogger, his site Cricketwithballs.net won July’s Best of Blogs in TWC