Indian cricket team has never been bereft of spinners. Be it the famous spin quartet on the 1970s; Venkat, Bedi, Prasanna & Chandra. 1980s were dominated by Shivlal Yadav, Maninder Singh, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and the mercurial Narendra Hirwani. 1990s saw emergence of Anil Kumble and he was partnered by Venkatapathy Raju, Rajesh Chauhan & Sunil Joshi. Then began in the previous decade a spin partnership every visiting team to India were vary of; Anil Kumble & Harbhajan Singh. No other spinner could imagine a look in during their reign.
But since Kumble's retirement, India has tried many a leg spinner who would partner Harbhajan and even be the lead spinner in the Turbanator's absence; Pragyan Ojha, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Amit Mishra, R.Ashwin & Ravindra Jadeja.
Ramesh Powar has fallen out of favour with the selectors as neither his bowling nor his batting are penetrative enough and his fielding too has been a bother. Ravindra Jadeja has made an impression in ODIs with his miserly, effective bowling and hard working batting, but he cant be mistaken for a strike bowler. Piyush Chawla has played two test matches but has been far from convincing and he has lacked variety. Pragyan Ojha was quite impressive in the chances he has got in both ODIs and Tests. His performances till date in T20Is too are encouraging. But most impressive has been Amit Mishra. He has a big heart, doesnt mind tossing it up to the batsman inviting them for the drives and the big shots and most importantly he has been amongst the wickets too. His performances in the ongoing IPL are a testament to that.
But the juggle by the national selectors and the team management in handling these three spinners have been far from impressive. Amit Mishra, after an uninspiring performance against Sri Lanka on a placid wicket at Ahmedabad, where even the legend Muralitharan suffered, was dropped in favour of Ojha who came good in the next two tests. In Bangladesh, Mishra yet again played the first test with a decent outing with the ball and a half century as a nightwatchman with the bat. But he was dropped for the next test in favour of Ojha. And out of the blue he was selected for both the home tests against South Africa. The most baffling bit of selection surely has been Chawla's inclusion in the World Twenty 20 at the cost of in form Mishra who holds the Purple Cap till now in the IPL and Ojha who again has been in top form. The reasoning that Chawla is the better batsman out of the three is a weak one. A bowler needs to be very good at what he does other than the contribution he makes with the bat; Chawla has been extremely ineffective this IPL and hasnt shown any match winning capabilities with the bat either.
Non-exclusion of Amit Mishra at a time when he bowling like a dream could be very disheartening and discouraging. Piyush Chawla on the other hand must make sure he cashes in on this huge oppurtunity. He has been out of contention from the Indian team for almost tow years now. The last he played was in 2008 against Pakistan. His selection has to be justified by strong performances by him for his team Kings XI Punjab, but that too hasnt happened. He has snapped 5 wickets in 10 matches at an average of 60 runs per wicket. His batting, which is apparently the prime reason for his inclusion in the side over Mishra and Ojha too hasnt shored up KXIP when required.
Hoping the Chawla surprises all of us by putting together a string of good performances to justify his selection in the World T20 squad and puts up a good show if he gets a chance at the mega event.
At a time when the art of spin bowling in on the wane from international cricket, India has a problem of plenty in there. Hauritz, Swann, Mendis, Ajmal are expected to be the flag bearers of spin bowling in the coming years. Managing the practitioners of this art is very crucial in upholding the tradition of Indian being amongst the teams with the best spin attack.
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