ILT20

Biography

As soon as you see him bowl, he reminds you of a certain 'Shane Warne'. With the same boyish looks, the guts to toss the ball up no matter who is against him, and that sharp spin which can bamboozle any batter, Adam Zampa will want to continue the legacy of his idol.

Born in South Australia, Zampa started his career as a medium pacer. However, Cricket Australia had placed restrictions on the number of pacers allowed in a team and thus, Zampa turned to leg-spin following his idol Shane Warne. Zampa first made his way into the Australia U-19 team where he earned a spot in the 2010 squad which won the U-19 World Cup. As a result of his youth career, Zampa was given a rookie contract by New South Wales in 2010.

In the 2012-13 season, he made his first-class debut against Queensland in the Sheffield Shield. Later in 2013, he shifted to the South Australia team where he was coached by the then South African skipper Johan Botha. This was a huge turning point in his career as he was given regular opportunities and he went from strength to strength as time passed. The 2015-16 season was his best as he became consistent with his bowling and earned a call-up to the international squad in 2016.

Adam made his ODI debut in February 2016, which was soon followed by his T20I debut against South Africa. Zampa became a regular for the Aussies in the limited-overs format. He was also included in the 2016 T20 World Cup which was to be held in India. The World Cup wasn't a success for him and neither was the ICC Champions Trophy that followed. Australia went out in the group stage as 2 of their 3 games got washed out.

Adam's promise with the ball got him selected for Pune in the Indian Premier League, and the leggie went on to become the second bowler to pick a 6-wicket haul in the League history. He also excelled while playing for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the 2016 CPL and finished as the most successful spinner that season with 15 wickets.

Zampa's bravery to toss the ball up can be his strength but also his weakness. He has not been able to break the stronghold of other spinners in the Test squad and as a result, is yet to make his debut in the longer format. The leggie was included in the 2019 World Cup squad but didn't feature regularly. His career was a story of hits and misses, but he continued to work on his skills and soon became the leader of the spin group for Australia in the shorter formats.