Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa has decided to opt out of the New South Wales team for the One-Day Cup final against Tasmania despite being available for selection, to ensure fellow leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha can keep his place in the playing XI.
Sangha, who has played four ODIs and seven T20Is, is this season’s domestic 50-over tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 18 scalps at 18.05.
NSW announced a 13-player squad for the decider against Tasmania in Hobart, with Zampa not included despite being among a handful of Australia T20 squad members – including NSW quicks Sean Abbott and Ben Dwarshuis – being made available. Tasmania look set to regain Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann and Matthew Wade.
As reported by cricket.com.au, Zampa is understood to have expressed his desire to play the final after returning from Australia’s failed T20 World Cup 2026 campaign in Sri Lanka last month, and told Cricket NSW as much. But CNSW’s cricket performance chief Greg Mail said there wasn’t room for both Zampa and Sangha in the same XI for the day-night final. When that was made clear to Zampa, the 33-year-old and two-time World Cup winner was supportive of avoiding what would have been a brutal call to axe Sangha.
“As (Zampa) always is when he is available for us, he’s very cognisant of the impact on Tanveer,” Mail told cricket.com.au. “He was keen to play but was pretty clear he didn’t want it to be at Tanveer’s expense. That’s a position we were aligned with as well.
“In domestic cricket we have a dual mandate of trying to develop players for Australia, and winning. With Tanveer being the leading wicket-taker coming into the final, we all thought the right thing to do was to make sure he played to continue to try to develop him to be the next long-term spinner for Australia.
“With the final being at Bellerive Oval under lights, we thought it wasn’t a two leg-spinner game – we’ve previously played them both together – so we agreed ‘Zamps’ wouldn’t play. I said to him that I think he’s taken a very unselfish approach to this, and one that should be commended.”
Both wrist-spinners featured in the same NSW XI when Zampa played in a one-dayer at Sydney’s Cricket Central in September, incidentally against Tasmania. Zampa had also presented Sangha with his ODI cap in September 2023 in South Africa.
