Rise of the wrist spinners

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Chennai, September 18

MS Dhoni might have felt a little wistful as he watched Hardik Pandya smash monstrous hits and then pick up two crucial wickets in the series opener on Sunday. Right from the early days of his captaincy, Dhoni had lamented the lack of a quality seam all-rounder, one who could win games with both bat and ball. And finally when India found that elusive all-rounder in Pandya, the former India skipper is not too far away from bringing down the curtain on his storied career.

Pandya’s impact in the opening match was obvious — his 66-ball 83 when the team was down in the dumps, and his dismissal of Steve Smith and Travis Head in a space of a few balls broke the back of the Aussies. However, the performance of the wrist spinners — Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal – didn’t catch as much attention as it deserved. The duo took five wickets in nine overs, giving away just 63 runs to help India to an easy win.

Brave move

For starters, it’s rare to see a team fielding two wrist spinners in a game. It’s a pretty huge gamble as they can go for a lot of runs while looking to pick wickets. The Chennai game showcased both the advantages and the disadvantages this species of spinner brings to the table. While Pandya thumped Adam Zampa for three sixes and a four, Glenn Maxwell returned the favour by smashing Yadav, in particular, and Chahal for a few sixes. The good part was that the spinners from both sides ended up dismissing their tormentors. So, it takes a brave and attacking skipper to make this bold move, and India skipper Virat Kohli is as attacking as they come. He doesn’t mind his spinners leaking runs as long as they pick up wickets. “It is a great advantage to have two wrist spinners in your team. They don’t mind getting hit as long as they pick up three-four wickets... It’s something that gives me a lot of confidence,” he said.

For the spinners, too, a captain with an attacking mindset works like magic. “Leg-spinners are attacking bowlers, and when they have an attacking captain backing them, they get the freedom to attack even more,” Chahal said after his three-wicket haul on Sunday.

Wicket-takers

It’s apparently Kohli’s reluctance to play the waiting game in the middle overs that has pushed him to pick the attacking wrist spinners over generally restricting finger spinners. He needs to have an attacking option to deal with the middle overs, and these two fit the bill perfectly. “The crucial breakthroughs we look forward to in the middle part of the game are very important. There you need a bowler who has some mystery about him and gets those crucial breakthroughs,” said Rohit Sharma. “You never know what’s coming out of their hand. That’s what they bring to the table and that’s what the captain really wants.” 

Given their performance in Chennai and the skipper’s apparent backing, fielding them in tandem could become a norm rather than an exception.

Where does that leave R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the team’s scheme of things in the shorter formats? While Jadeja, with his all-round abilities and exceptional fielding, will continue to stay in the fray, Ashwin may find it hard to break into the One-day and T20 teams.

Rain likely to affect Eden ODI too

Kolkata: The second ODI between India and Australia on Thursday could witness another truncated match as the weatherman has not ruled out the possibility of intermittent showers, especially in the evening. On Monday, the Eden Gardens remained under cover ahead of the second ODI. “The pitch and ground conditions are just perfect but I cannot say whether it will rain or not,” said CAB pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee. — PTI