Warne asks Australia to play a spinner at MCG

Australia need to play a spinner in this week's fourth Ashes Test and should consider utilising all-rounder Shane Watson's ability with the ball to bolster the pace attack, according to former spin-bowling great Shane Warne. 

Australia tormented England with a four-pronged pace attack on a lively wicket in Perth last weekend to win the third Test by 267 runs and level the series at 1-1, prompting calls for the same tactics to be used in Melbourne. 

"I am sure the Australian selectors will want to stick with the same winning team. Historically, Melbourne Test match has always needed a spinner, as you don't always pick a team for the first innings," Warne wrote in a blog on the Daily Telegraph website. 

"It's hard to change a winning team but I think a spinner will play." 

On Warne's recommendation, they ditched the ninth, Xavier Doherty, after a crushing second Ashes Test defeat in Adelaide and plucked a 10th, Michael Beer, from obscurity for the squad for the Perth Test. 

Left-armer Beer, who had played just five first class matches, ended up carrying the drinks as 12th man at the WACA but was retained in the squad for the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) test, which starts on Sunday. 

"I think Beer was a horses for courses selection," Warne wrote. "What has impressed me about Hauritz, he's gone back and taken wickets and made runs. 

"As I said before the Test series, I think Hauritz deserves first chance and if he didn't work out, try the next in line. So I think it still stands that Hauritz deserves a chance for Melbourne and Sydney." 

"It's a drop-in wicket so there's not much you can do to (it)," wrote Warne, who comes from Melbourne and knows the MCG well. "It will be flat and hard work for the bowlers after the new ball has lost it's hardness after that 30-35 over mark. 

"It's warm in Melbourne and staying like this for the next week so there might be a bit more grass on it at the start but I don't think it's a conspiracy ..." 

Opening batsman Watson had always considered himself to be an all-rounder and should be considered as a bowling option to make way for a spinner, Warne added.