Legspinner Mitchell Swepson has been named Queensland official vice-captain and will lead the side in both the both the One-Day Cup and the Sheffield Shield when captain Marnus Labuschagne is absent on international duty.
The decision to elevate Swepson to the leadership role continues the significant shake-up in Queensland cricket under new coach Johan Botha and high performance manager Joe Dawes.
Labuschagne was appointed as the permanent Queensland captain in all forms, replacing long-term captain Usman Khawaja, despite also being set to play very few games across the summer due to being a first-choice player in Australia’s Test side and the ODI side.
Wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson had long-been a reliable deputy and automatic stand-in skipper for Queensland in all forms when Khawaja was absent. But Botha has decided to elevate Swepson to the role after leading the side in a few pre-season games.
“We had quite a bit of leadership chat in the winter, and him [Swepson] and Jimmy were excellent with all of that and the way the group saw them,” Botha told ESPNcricinfo. “I think that’s a big thing as a leader, the group really would play for them and like what they see. And that’s certainly the way we thought about it. We know that Jimmy can do it. He’s still going to be the same Jimmy and the same on and off the field. So we just felt we want to develop another leader.”
Swepson will lead the side for the first time in Queensland’s opening One-Day match of the season on Wednesday when they face Tasmania on neutral territory at the Junction Oval in Melbourne, before playing Victoria on Friday. Khawaja will miss the match against Tasmania but will play against Victoria on Friday. Peirson has not been selected in the Bulls’ 13-man squad for the two matches in Melbourne. Ben McDermott will keep for the Bulls.
Michael Neser has recovered from his calf niggle and is set to play both matches but Gurinder Sandhu has been ruled out with a calf issue of his own. Xavier Bartlett remains unavailable due to the side strain he suffered during Australia’s tour of UK.
Swepson has been Queensland’s first-choice Shield spinner for years, which has forced Matthew Kuhnemann to move to Tasmania, but he has only played one 50-over game for the Bulls since November 2022 and only six in total since he played three ODIs for Australia in Pakistan and Sri Lanka earlier that year.
But Botha, who captained South Africa in white-ball cricket and South Australia in all forms as a spinner, believes Swepson’s challenge as a spin-bowling captain will come in Shield cricket rather than the shorter format.
“I think in one-day cricket it’s easier to captain as a spinner, because the game sort of tells you when to bowl,” Botha said. “But in four-day cricket, is he going to be brave enough to bowl the 17th over of the Shield game on day one? But that’s what we’ll keep pushing him towards to get himself into the game. We trust him as a staff and a group, and he just needs to trust himself.”
Swepson, like Kuhnemann, is pushing to win a place on Australia’s Test two-tour of Sri Lanka in late January. Swepson played the last of his four Tests in Sri Lanka in 2022 when he was Australia’s second spinner but missed out on selection during last year’s tour of India despite being in the touring party, as Australia opted to play three finger spinners in Kuhnemann, Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy in the same side. Murphy usurped him as the first-choice back-up for Lyon on the Ashes tour later the same year.
Botha has been really impressed with Swepson’s bowling during his first pre-season in charge of the Bulls. The coach is hoping to use Swepson more aggressively this year, even in seam-friendly conditions at the Gabba.
“I’ve been really impressed with him,” Botha said. “His control for a legspinner has been excellent, and you can see why he has played Test cricket in the past. He got 30 wickets last year. So we’re hoping for more of that this summer, and I think in our team we certainly want to use the spinners more and better and earlier in games, and not just the old whole way of sort of an over before lunch, an over before tea and then quite a bit in the last session.
“I think the way he’s bowling at the moment, and our mindset around it is to get him to bowl earlier and to bowl more in a day to help our quicks out. That’s certainly the way we want him to play, and I think he will appreciate that backing.”