Less than eight overs. That was the total amount of overs sent down by England spinners during their three-Test home series against Pakistan in the second half of the summer.

Just 52 deliveries to be exact.

By comparison, that is one less than James Anderson faced during his heroic last-wicket partnership with Monty Panesar to secure an unlikely draw against Australia in the 2009 Ashes Test at Cardiff.

So where are England’s spinners, and why are they being relied upon less?

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A balancing act?

For context, there was not a huge need for England to turn to spin against Pakistan.

The visitors only managed to bat beyond 50 overs on two occasions, one of which they exceeded by just five deliveries.

England’s seamers had barely completed their first spells before they were back in the dressing room with their feet up.

It was telling, however, that on the one occasion that Pakistan did rack up a significant total in their second innings at Edgbaston, England’s only venture to spin was to give Dan Lawrence a meagre 4.4 overs in an innings total of 96.

The Surrey man impressed with the bat following his return to the Test side after prolific domestic form for the Brown Caps, but a first-class return of 10 wickets at 80.30 in 2026 would leave many flummoxed as to why he is entering the Test arena as his country’s premier spin option. 

A strike rate of a wicket every 132 deliveries would not help to remedy any of that confusion.

The reason that Lawrence was selected for that role is down to one thing, balance.

The Stokes void

England’s preference for an attack with four seamers is nothing new, but for over a decade they had Ben Stokes playing in a genuine all-rounder role.

This gave England the option to include a front-line spinner in their bowling unit, and in recent years that was largely entrusted to Shoaib Bashir.

Promoted to full Test honours on potential rather than experience, England appeared to lose faith with Bashir ahead of last winter’s Ashes series Down Under. 

They picked five seamers for the first Test in Perth, before opting for Will Jacks’ part-time spin during the remainder of the series.

Stokes’ sudden retirement at the conclusion of the New Zealand series this summer left England with a number of headaches, not least how they were going to replace his contributions with both bat and ball.

With a lack of ready-made replacements at their disposal, the only way for England to do this has been to add another seamer to their attack and replace Stokes at number six in the order with a recognised batter in Lawrence, who can offer some gentle off spin when needed. 

England can also turn to Joe Root and Jacob Bethell to fill in some overs so England are left with their preferred four-pronged seam attack at the expense of playing an out-and-out spin option.

An increasingly common theme

While many traditionalists will be up in arms at a side entering a Test match without a recognised spinner, it is becoming a more common occurrence. 

Pakistan did select a front-line spinner in Ali Usman for the first two Tests during the aforementioned series but the total completed overs bowled by their “tweakers” across the full series was a lowly 46. 

Many will justifiably point to the late August and early September English conditions not exactly being conducive to turning pitches, and indeed it was the seamers and particularly an inspired Ollie Robinson who gobbled up most of the wickets.

But such accusations cannot be levelled at England’s earlier series against New Zealand, where a heatwave saw the final two Tests played in conditions more akin to Karachi and Nairobi, than Kennington and Nottingham.

Even in conditions that you’d expect to facilitate some turn, the Kiwis only used spin for less than 30 overs in the entire series, relying on a mix of Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra, neither of whom would be considered front-line Test match spinners.

Not just an English problem?

While England gave their options a higher workload of 73 overs across the series, split between Root, Bethell and a returning Bashir, the first Test match at Lord’s saw no overs bowled by spin by either side for the first time in a Test match in the UK since 1988. 

Many were critical of the soon-to-be re-laid Lord’s pitch, but you only had to go back a couple of Tests to find England’s last spin-less Test match, the 2025-26 Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and another two-day contest.

Indeed, England’s Ashes foes are increasingly entering Test matches without Nathan Lyon, an almost unthinkable act in the not-so-distant past to leave out an off-spinner who is approaching 150 Test matches and 600 Test wickets. 

It was only less than a month ago in the second Test against South Africa where Australia decided to go with the extra seamer and rely upon Beau Webster and Matt Renshaw for spin duties if required, and over the last 12 months it is not an isolated incident.

On the list of leading Test wicket-takers of all-time, 50% come from spin. 

So why is spin seemingly becoming less utilised in the longer format?

Pace of the game

The most obvious reason is the increase in the speed of the game. 

That doesn’t always mean Tests played at limited overs run rates, but they are increasingly failing to make it to the fifth – or even third or fourth – day. 

Spinners are artists who usually rely on wearing pitches later in the contest to facilitate their craft. 

Just like a classic seam and swing bowler will rely on helpful overhead cloud cover and some moisture in the surface, an “offie” or a “leggie” will often require a dry pitch starting to come apart, enabling them to gain extra turn and bounce from cracks in the pitch. 

The longer a Test match plays out, the more likely they are to find the help they need.

If Test matches are traditionally lasting for shorter lengths of time, it results in spin bowlers having less opportunity to bowl in more favourable conditions and teams, therefore, are opting for all-seam attacks to make best use of the pitch and conditions.

To the contrary of spin bowlers being less en vogue in modern Test cricket, they are a much greater commodity in limited overs cricket with their variations and ability to take pace off the ball being highly sought after on the franchise circuit. 

However, could therein lie another problem for the Test match spinner? 

Bowling in short-form cricket is more about keeping economy rates low and spinners will naturally look to bowl as defensively as possible. 

The challenge then is to flip that approach entirely in Test matches, with an expectation to bowl their side to victory in supportive conditions.

Maybe the lack of front-line spin for some Test nations is not just down to balance, but also trust?

Proteas benchmark

England’s new Test head coach, Stephen Fleming, recently implied that Lawrence will remain as their spin option going into a challenging series against world number one Test side South Africa in December.

Their hosts have struggled to find top-class spinners since their re-admission into international cricket in 1992 but now seem to have stumbled across two at once. 

Keshav Maharaj is their leading Test spinner in terms of wickets with 220, and Simon Harmer is fresh off bowling them to victory in Cape Town at the conclusion of a thrilling home series against Australia. 

Harmer’s Test wickets have come at an average of 23.07 and pitches that were predominantly seamer-friendly in South Africa are now being prepared to make sure there is plenty of assistance on offer for at least one of their spin twins.

In comparing spin options between the two nations, it does have the feel of entering a gun fight with your little brother’s water pistol.

Who else could England turn to?

Beyond that series, England head to Bangladesh for two Tests in February and given the typically sub-continent conditions, they simply must play at least one recognised spin bowler. 

When England announced their list of centrally-contracted players for 2026/27 last month, only one front-line spinner was on that list: Bashir. 

Many still feel he is not ready for international cricket and needs additional time to learn his trade at county level. 

His international performances over the last two years have often seen him be a passenger and few could be confident in him if given that responsibility again this winter.

Rehan Ahmed also appears on the list, almost four years after impressing when becoming England’s youngest ever Test debutant. 

He played the last of his five Tests two years ago, and whilst he did feature in ODI home series against Sri Lanka in September, he did at times look like a man who had not bowled an awful lot since we last saw him at international level. 

188 overs during Leicestershire’s County Championship campaign yielded 19 wickets at 40 and it feels that his batting is now viewed as hist stronger suit in the red-ball game. 

His path now looks like it may be similar to Scott Borthwick’s when his promising leg-spin became less frequently used in the four-day game, but he often found himself making runs at number three.

Contracts indication

The development contracts awarded by England perhaps give us the more interesting options. 

Mason Crane was selected in the recent tri-series squad in Pakistan, rewarded for years of steady improvement in his leg-spin and strong form for Glamorgan, following a chastening solitary Test appearance in Sydney in 2018. 

Nottinghamshire’s Liam Patterson-White has been producing eye-catching performances in recent seasons and was the leading spinner in the 2026 County Championship with 42 wickets at an average of a shade over 25.

The pair also offer the ability to score useful lower-order runs.

Both are currently with the England Lions white-ball squad in the Caribbean.

Second in the wickets list among spinners, unsurprisingly to many, was Jack Leach.

England’s forgotten man

Another consistent season for the cult-figure at Somerset saw him also return the lowest economy rate of any front-line bowler in Division One. 

The continued omission of Leach is one of the more puzzling selection decisions of recent times – even Harmer recently urged England to recall the left-armer when the two sides meet in South Africa for a three-match Test series starting next month.  

The Bazball era saw many left-field decisions on and off the pitch, possibly too many to list here, but picking Bashir ahead of his county team-mate when he couldn’t even make the Somerset side ahead of him was eyebrow raising to say the least. 

Some understood that England wanted to blood the 23-year-old as it was felt his height and extra bounce would be useful in Australian conditions, only for Bashir to then carry the drinks for the entire Ashes series and there was no full-time back up spinner selected in the squad.

Leach’s omission from the latest list of central contracts implies that the 35-year-old remains unfancied by the new regime. 

He last played a Test match in October 2024, and it appears that he will be best remembered for his unbeaten single during a 76-run partnership with Stokes to win the epic Headingley Ashes Test in 2019.

A structural issue?

The first block of County Championship games are largely played in April and May, usually a seamer’s haven, and although pitches later in the season when games are played in September are likely to be more worn, typical weather conditions at this time of year also favour traditional line and length. 

Quite simply, the scheduling of domestic cricket in England does no favours to the development of spin bowling.

And when they do find a consistent spin option, he is then replaced to balance the starting XI or invest in someone based on potential.

There will always be a need for a quality frontline spin bowler – England need to find theirs and find it quick.