Adam Zampa

Adam Zampa, leg-spinner from New South Wales, was chosen in Australia’s squad for the U19 World Cup in 2010 and made his first-class debut in November 2012. 

He possesses impressive control and variety and has also shown leadership skills as captain of Sutherland in the Sydney Grade competition. 

The young leggie showed early signs of his ability after playing an instrumental role in Australia’s successful campaign at the Under-19 World Cup.

Following his impressive performances for South Australia and the Melbourne Stars, the wily spinner made his way into Australia’s ODI & T20I squads in 2016. The spinner emerged as Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the World T20 hosted by India the same year. His 3 for 23 in a World Cup 2016 match against Bangladesh saw him winning the Man of the Match award, as he joined a very short list of Australian spinners who were bestowed with that honour in the shortest format at that time.

The leg-spin sensation got his first taste in the IPL in 2016 playing for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants in their debut season and claimed 6 for 19 versus Sunrisers Hyderabad, which was the second-best figure in the tournament history.

After a decent start to the T20I series against Sri Lanka in 2016-17, Zampa was shockingly dropped after taking two wickets in the first match. He described it as a ‘kick in the guts’ stating that his recent T20 form indicated that he was one of the best spin bowlers in the shortest format in the world.

Despite his amazing success in the limited-overs format, the spinner, nicknamed Zorba, was unable to break into the Test side of Australia. Instead, he continued playing in the Sheffield Shield and had his first five-wicket haul in a first-class match, when he took career-best figures of 6/62 in the first innings against Queensland before taking another four wickets in the second innings to accomplish his first ten-wicket haul in a first-class match in 2016-17 season of Sheffield Shield.

Prior to the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, Zampa was named in Australia’s squad but didn’t get much opportunity to play. Being a reliable spinner for the Aussies he was also named in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and was found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during Match 10 between Australia and West Indies. Playing in the most prestigious tournament of cricket, Zampa picked 5 wickets in the four matches.

Replacing the countryman Kane Richardson before the start of the 2020 edition of the IPL, Zampa featured in just 3 matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore and was retained by the IPL giants for the upcoming seasons.

Zampa remains a key figure in the Australian bowling line-up not only due to his wicket-taking abilities but also the fact that he has proven to be an impressive bowler in limited-overs cricket.

(As of March 2021)