Where are the spinners dude?

Mahender Singh Dhoni has opined for a bigger panel of fast bowlers and rotate them from time to time for several tournaments as it’s more difficult for the pace bowlers than the batsmen to keep their fitness perfect due to the overdue of the games Team India is playing. Most of the ex-cricketers and the critics have craved for the same for a long time in order to improve India’s dismal performances overseas. In the past, the team has paid a huge price for the paucity of good quick bowlers as our spinners weren’t half as effective on seamer friendly surfaces. Anyone who could bowl quick was fast-tracked to first-class level and eventually to International cricket. Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Sudeep Tyagi, Jaydev Unadkat and Jaskarandip Singh are a few names in this list.

In due course of time, we got so obsessed with the fast bowlers that we ignored the spinners. We believed that our spin headed country will never feel the need of quality spinners in future.Therefore, we asked our curators to prepare sporting tracks at the domestic level to encourage the fast bowlers. Then it was the T20 revolution (IPL) which bound the spinners, as well as the faster bowlers defensive rather than going for wickets.

Despite of such attempts, people will argue that we still don’t have the expected pool of fast bowlers. We have hardly a single bowler who can deliver over 140 KPH consistently at the International level like the bowlers of Australia, South Africa, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand. It is because of the weather condition, geographical situation of the country and the lack of International bowling academies.

India had some great spinners in the past.Chandrasekhar,Venkat Raghavan,Prasanna,Sivaramakrisnan are a few of those names. Few years ago, we have one of the greatest Indian spinner ever,Anil Kumble, who announced his retirement after winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last time. It was Harbhajan Singh all the way after Kumble as he was matured well and was the regular ODI spinner for India after the 2003 World Cup.

But somehow, the Turbanator failed to deliver as expected. He bowled well in some matches and at the same time went wicketless also in some. Once he was dropped from the team for not taking wickets consistently, Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla were preferred then. But their lack of experience at the International level played a vital role which proved to be the main cause of their inexistence in the national squad now.

In the mid and late 90′s and 2000′s, some other bowlers came and went.Sunil Joshi,Nikhil Chopra,Vijay Bhardwaj,Sairaj Bahutule,Murali Kartik,Amit Mishra are a few of those names.People may agree that Murali Kartik needs another break, but the selectors seem to be ignoring him time to time.

Currently,Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin seem to be two reliable spinners besides Harbhajan Singh. But some young talented spinners like Kulamani Parida,Mohnish Parmar,Iqbal Abdullah,Rajesh Pawar etc were ignored by the National selectors and the reason might be the zonal biasing best known to them. But most people will argue that India failed to groom a young spinner after the retirement of Anil Kumble. Depending too much on Harbhajan Singh might cost the team heavily in future. But where are the spinners ?

Harbhajan Singh is now the main spinner of his IPL Team Mumbai Indians.In the last edition of IPL,he bowled pretty well as per the need of T20 being the 2^nd most economic bowler of the tournament.He also showed some bravery with the bat as well.This indicates him as a good All-Rounder for the T20s for some extent.When it comes to Tests and ODIs,he has bowled economically,he got five wickets against RSA at the Eden Gardens to help India win the test,level the series and retain the no.1 status,but failed to take wickets on a consistent basis.

Let’s consider the recent past and the role of our spinners now.In the first two Tests against Sri Lanka in the recently concluded series, both Harbhajan and Ojha were off colour. In fact both of them looked quite listless, which in turn made the Indian attack look rather pedestrian.

In the 3rd test,Ojha was upto the mark and India won,but consistency is still a big task specially in ODIs.

A good spinner is not the one who runs through a side on a crumbling surface but the one who makes his presence felt even on the flattest of tracks.Anil Kumble was the best example for this. In fact,if you can’t take wickets, try creating pressure by keeping the batsman quiet. If you can’t breach his technique, challenge his ego,tempt him to go for the big shots,deceive by your flight,but don’t just try to save yourself from being hit.

Yet the situation at the top may not be as alarming, but the scenario a step below is quite disappointing. These days, no spinner in India seems to succeed in the longer format of the game. Most spinners at the first class level prefer to bowl quicker and flatter instead of tossing the ball. Even at the School level, kids mostly prefer to be a batsman. If anyone wants to be a bowler, he prefers to be a pacer and very few, who are bowling spin, fear to flight the bowl.

So producing good quality spinner is also the need of the hour.There is every possibility that the overdose of T20 Cricket might destroy the career of a young spinner. BCCI, therefore, needs to prepare some more spin friendly grounds, teach the young talents by the experts like Kumble and save Indian Test Cricket thereby, otherwise only some ordinary spinners will be representing India in the future.

Will the flexibility in the batting order serve the purpose?

In another 8 months, the world cricket is going to witness the Biggest Cricket War. The sub continent nations like IND-SL-BAN are going to host the 2011 ICC ODI Cricket World Cup.The preparation by all the cricket playing nations are in a full swing and are gearing up for the most important tournament which comes once in 4 years. Let’s have a view over our team’s(India) preparation especially the batting which has always been our strength.

There is no doubt about our opening combination as we have the two best openers in the world, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

Gautam Gambhir, though he has not played any World Cup, looks determined and likely to play at No. 3 this time.

Yuvraj Singh has proved to be the best batsman in the middle order and playing at No.4 though he is not at his best recently.

The skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni himself have promoted and demoted according to the situation the batting order but, batting at No.5 Position has been the best for him.

Suresh Raina is currently the best from the younger lot and can make big difference at No.3 which he has already proved his mettle in the Indian Premier League (IPL) while playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). But, since Gambhir also opened few times in the past, so he is the first choice to play at No.3. Raina, though can be a good finisher if he asked to bat down the order at No.6 position.

For No.7, there few options Robin Uttappa, Irfan Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.Besides this, India has also tried Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.From the three batsmen,Uthappa can prove to be the finisher since his S/R clocks to 92 in ODIs.Ravindra Jadeja has wasted the chances given to him. He hasn’t fared well either with ball or with the bat. There is a serious contention for this position along with the proven all rounder Irfan Pathan.

Now, the more important aspect is the time.Since there is no much time left for the preparation for the world cup event 2011 and more over India has only 8 more ODIs to play at home before the event.The final squad with a PERMANENT BATTING ORDER should be addressed immediately,which will help players to prepare mentally for the allocated batting positions.

One more major issue Indian team facing is the burn out. India is playing non stop cricket for the last 1 year and all the key players are getting injured in each and every series and it has lot do Specially with our openers, who either were injured or have opted out due to fitness problem before an important series.Because of this major reak down,in the last 1 year we have tried the combination of Tendulkar+Sehwag,Sehwag+Gambhir and Tendulkar+Gambhir for the opening pair in the last 1 year.

Because of the absence of either opener,the No.3 was also affected and the position was experimented with too many batsmen. The batsmen who played at No.3 were Rohit Sharma,Virat Kohli,Dinesh Karthik,Suresh Raina and M S Dhoni.

Early in the year,2010,Yuvraj Singh was also injured and prompted Virat Kohli to bat at No.4.Thus the entire batting order has faced the flexibility issue in the recent past which is actually not a good sign as the World Cup event is approaching near.

Let’s consider the ongoing Tri-Series between IND-SL-NZ itself.Sachin Tendulkar has opted out for rest,Gautam Gambhir,along with Harbhajan Singh,has been rested due to fitness problem.So,currently Dinesh Karthik has taken the opening position with Virender Sehwag while Rohit Sharma has been preferred over Virat Kohli at the no.3 position.These two players (Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma) know very well that SachinTendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are certain for the upcoming World Cup playing 11 at their respective positions unless an injury and hence,they still don’t have their place in the team line up.

And because of this make shift in the batting order,has created many problems.The skipper himself has tried at No.3,4,5,6 and 7 and thinks that the flexibility has been good for the team.(But if we consider the few matches were we lost badly,the flexibility in the batting order was one of the main reasons).

After India’s debacle against the black caps in the ongoing Tri series,Dhoni may plan to promote Suresh Raina at No.3 because of his current form.We know,the best batsman of the team should bat at No.3.Rahul Dravid was batting at this position who provided the solidity in the middle order.Gambhir was giving good support from this position untill injury.Raina,too,can manage himself at No.3 but with Gambhir’s return Raina may have go back to play at No.6.

The team management should fix the batting order for Raina and should look for the long term goal rather than solving the short term by sending Raina at no.3.

The upcoming series against the world no.1 Aussies will be crucial for Team India at home.Hopefully,the world cup rehearsal will go in a smooth way without any injury.

The sooner the team management addresses this all more important issue, the better is for the Indian cricket.India is a cricket craze driven country and the billion people will be pinned lots of hopes on the World cup event which will be played at home.