Spin bowling a dying art in England, warns Mike Gatting

Mike Gatting believes England's spin options are "dying away" and fears modern trends in county cricket are hindering hopes of recovering the situation.

England's spinners failed to impose themselves during the 2-0 series defeat to Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, where pitches were made to favour the slow bowlers.

Experienced seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad instead shouldered the burden, highlighted during the 123-run third Test defeat.

England selected a three-pronged spin attack of Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Samit Patel in Sharjah, yet Anderson and Broad took 11 of the 20 Pakistan wickets to fall.

Gatting thinks an over-reliance on the pacemen can be traced back to county cricket, where seam-friendly wickets have made the role of a spinner an afterthought for many domestic captains.

The former England skipper believes there are promising young slow bowlers in domestic ranks - pointing to 18-year-old Hampshire leg-spinner Mason Crane as an example - but is concerned such talents are not being allowed to blossom by a lack of opportunity on seam-friendly wickets.

"(The depth of English spinners) is sadly low. There are some good youngsters coming through, but there are not enough wickets conducive to spin in the UK any more," Gatting told Press Association Sport.

"People would rather use the seamers. Our wickets don't turn much these days and that's going to come back and bite us quite severely if we don't do something about it.

"Yes, we're used to playing in 'English conditions', but when I played we used to have two spinners in the side and when you got to the end of the season the wickets did turn and therefore you got an idea of how to play spin bowling.

"Sadly now the art seems to be dying away and the spinners dying away."

With Test tours away to India and Bangladesh next year the problem is more acute and Gatting thinks English spinners are simply not bowling enough to allow them to make the step up to international ranks.

"The seamers are used to bowling on these wickets, they've worked together, they've worked on their discipline and they've worked on reverse swing and the spinners just haven't had enough bowling," he said.

"Adil plays up in Yorkshire. Moeen has been playing but only seems to bowl in Test matches and doesn't bowl that many overs. The great thing about spinners is that you have got to bowl lots of overs.

"You have got to do that, it's so important. If you don't do that you're in trouble."

The series statistics for England's spinners in the UAE did not make for good reading as they managed 20 wickets between them at an average of 57.9, while leaking runs at more than four an over. By comparison Pakistan's spin trio, led by Yasir Shah, took 35 wickets at 27.4.

Those numbers can be mitigated by the fact Alastair Cook did not win a toss, meaning England's spinners did not have the advantage of bowling last on decaying surfaces, and when Rashid did bowl on a final-day wicket in Abu Dhabi he returned a five-wicket haul to almost win the game.

That performance was, however, isolated by the end of the series - it also came on the back of the Yorkshireman returning the worst Test debut figures by a spinner - as Rashid's international inexperience began to reveal itself.

Moeen's limitations as a front-line spinner, following an impressive start to his Test career, have been exposed in recent times while Patel - a late inclusion on tour for the uncapped Zafar Ansari - is a batsman first.

* Mike Gatting was speaking to Press Association Sport at the Sugar Ridge Hotel in Antigua as a part of the Lord's Taverners charity tour of the Caribbean island.