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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Searching for the spinners
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Searching for the spinners

India's rich tradition of spin is under threat from batting pitches and a lack of structured training

(from left) Axar Patel; Ravindra Jadeja; and R. Ashwin. Photographs by Gareth Copley/Getty Images; Mark Kolbe/Getty Images; and Andrew Biraj/Reuters respectively.Premium
(from left) Axar Patel; Ravindra Jadeja; and R. Ashwin. Photographs by Gareth Copley/Getty Images; Mark Kolbe/Getty Images; and Andrew Biraj/Reuters respectively.

NEW DELHI :

The day he took charge earlier this month, newly elected Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar listed some key changes he wanted to make. Most of them were to do with the corruption charges levelled against the board, yet there was one statement about the state of the game too: He talked about reinvigorating the National Cricket Academy (NCA), keeping an year-round focus on the development of players there. He then added, “There are no spinners in this country."

It wasn’t a one-off statement. Every selection meeting for the national team in the past few months has had to grapple with this problem. So much so that 35-year-old Harbhajan Singh, long past his prime and with no performances to back him, was selected again for the Test side to tour Bangladesh in June, after a gap of two years.

Indian cricket’s greatest asset in the bowling department seems to have lost its talent pool.

“The spin talent in Indian cricket is not in abundance any more," says former Indian cricketer and commentator Vijay Dahiya. “But whatever talent is available at the moment is still good. R. Ashwin is looking very good for the long haul. Amit Mishra has just come back to the Test side, and given his performances in Sri Lanka, he looks good for the next two-three years at least. I am sure we can find replacements by the time they are done," he adds.

The national team is a good starting point for this debate. Ashwin’s form is on the upswing since the Australian tour last season. On subcontinental pitches his record is lethal; he has taken 95 of his 145 wickets in these conditions. But he has been missing a potent strike partner, and this is where Mishra’s return to form can really make a difference. Mishra has taken to Virat Kohli’s aggressive leadership style, and is revelling in his latest comeback to the national fold. (Mishra’s involvement with Team India is uncertain at the moment though—he was summoned by the Bengaluru police on Tuesday on charges of allegedly physically assaulting a woman in the city last month).

There are others rotating back into the team, or waiting in the wings: Ravindra Jadeja has been recalled to the Test squad for the series against South Africa beginning 5 November, having picked 24 wickets in Saurashtra’s opening two games of the Ranji season against Tripura and Jharkhand. Pragyan Ojha has modified his action after being barred from bowling in December, and the selectors have already given their approval, picking him for the matches against Australia A earlier this year. And then there is Axar Patel, whose elevation from the Indian Premier League (IPL) to international cricket has been lightning quick. “I didn’t expect to be picked for India after only three years of playing professional cricket," Patel says. “I didn’t expect to tour Australia or be a part of the World Cup squad either. It has happened very quickly for me, and I am still trying to learn. The conditions, for example, in Australia were vastly different from what I am used to and I was disappointed not to be able to perform."

The selectors are willing to stick by Patel—at 21, he has both talent and time on his side. He played for India-A under Rahul Dravid and spun all kinds of webs in the four-day matches against South Africa A earlier this month. That got him entry into the first team, and he has managed to hold his own as the series has progressed, picking up three wickets in the Indore match on 14 October. Former left-arm spinner Maninder Singh says there are enough quality spinners in India: “Maybe at present they are not of the same calibre as spinners in the past, but they can always aspire to be so. The Indian spinners today are unpolished. They need an ex-spinner to mentor them, guide and teach them."

Harbhajan, meanwhile, is hanging on to his ODI cap by the skin of his teeth, although he has been expectedly dropped for the South Africa Test series.

While M.S. Dhoni or Kohli can still afford to pick and choose from a pool of spinners to partner Ashwin, it’s one level below the first team that the crisis deepens.

The IPL has seen a handful of spinners trying to impress—Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Iqbal Abdulla, Jayant Yadav and Harmeet Singh, to name a few—but none have been consistent, and none have displayed the kind of spark that makes selectors or captains feel that here’s a man who needs a chance, who needs nurturing. “All these names have propped up from the IPL. Unfortunately, they haven’t really got a chance to showcase their talents in the longer format," Dahiya says. “Yadav doesn’t get a chance because Haryana play at Lahli, a green top. At other times, Mishra is available for them, hence Chahal also misses out."

“When they do get to play, it is on rank turners on which it is tough to judge these spinners," says Dahiya, who is also the assistant coach of the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. “Look at the Tamil Nadu-Baroda game in the first round of Ranji this year. It got over in less than three days. How do you judge a young spinner in those conditions?"

In that match at Chennai earlier this month, Tamil Nadu were all out for 125 and 155 in their two innings; Baroda did worse, being shot out for 159 and 114 in theirs; 36 of the 40 wickets were picked up by spinners.

Then there is the opposite, and much more pervasive, tendency to make flat pitches to encourage run gluts. This Ranji season, in a match between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the former team scored 686 runs in an innings, and the latter replied with 528. Uttar Pradesh had two spinners; Yadav and former international Piyush Chawla. The duo bowled 93 overs between them and returned with three wickets (all three were taken by Yadav), and conceded 289 runs.

In the first three rounds—36 matches—of the 2015-16 Ranji season, there have been 13 scores of 400-plus, seven scores of 500-plus and another three of 600-plus. In the recently concluded third round, Himachal Pradesh even scored 707 for 8 (declared) against Hyderabad at Dharamsala. Though this season’s wickets tally, so far, is dominated by spinners, with Jadeja leading the rest—K. Monish (22 wickets, Kerala), Rahil Shah (18 wickets, Tamil Nadu), Manan Sharma (17 wickets, Delhi), Akshay Wakhare (16 wickets, Vidarbha)—how many of them are in contention for an India call-up if needed?

Tally this with bowling statistics from the last Ranji season, when quicker bowlers dominated the charts. Assam’s 26-year-old off-break bowler Swarupam Purkayastha, with 36 wickets from seven matches, was the highest placed spinner, at No.10. His chances of ever representing India are less than remote, considering he doesn’t even play for an IPL team. Unsurprisingly then, on the back of his IPL exploits, it was Harbhajan (six wickets in three matches last Ranji season) who popped back up when the team for Bangladesh was announced. “There is an imbalance with the pitches and quality of bowlers coming through, yes," says Maninder Singh. “If your fast bowlers and spinners can only take wickets on helpful wickets, and your batsmen can only score runs on flat tracks, how will India ever have a dominant team in Test cricket?

“The other argument is, someone like Shane Warne took most of his wickets on hard, bouncy wickets. Either you wait for a bowler of that quality to come along, or basically it comes down to one thing. The BCCI needs to identify a pool of players, 10-15 batsmen, and an equal number of fast bowlers and spinners. Let them employ ex-cricketers and mentor each group in their respective arts, at the junior and domestic levels. Surely the richest board in the world can afford to do that. Otherwise we will be waiting a long time," he adds.

The new BCCI president might be on to something with his idea of renewing and refreshing the NCA.

Chetan Narula is the author of Skipper: A Definitive Account Of India’s Greatest Captains.

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Published: 21 Oct 2015, 08:48 PM IST
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