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.