Missing: India's Spinning Reserves

Just two years ago, we had Harbhajan Singh & Pragyan Ojha doing a fine job for the test team. ODI team was managing well with Harbhajan Singh as the main spinner and Jadeja, Raina, Yuvraj rolling their arm over. Ashwin was amongst the front runners to win a spot in the Indian team with fine variations and a big heart. Piyush Chawla & Amit Mishra were still in the running for a spot in the team. Much of that has now changed. Let's see how.

Back in the present, Harbhajan has lost much of the guile that made him dangerous. Saying he is now a better batsman than an off spin bowler would be exaggerating it, but wouldn't be far from the truth. Not having played for the national team for almost 10 months now must be hitting him hard. His performance at the domestic level and IPL hasn't been anything to gloat over either. Ashwin, after a bright beginning to his ODI, Test career seems to have hit a point where he looks clueless while bowling on unhelpful pitches. He struggled in Australia and was back to bowling effectively in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. Ashwin's stuggles were evident as Indian bowling attack looked one dimensional in Australia, in tests especially. Pragyan Ojha bowled exceptionally well in home conditions against West Indies and is expected to play an important role in the upcoming season against the visiting Kiwis and English. Amit Mishra & Piyush Chawla has effectively fallen off the selectors' radar. Mishra's tendency to over step surely a dampener. Piyush Chawla's over reliance on his googly, usage of that as his stock ball and lack of any other variety makes him predictable and easily flayable. Rahul Sharma is an addition to the list of talented spinners in the last 12 odd months. In the few opportunities he's got, he has bowled effectively. With experience, he can only get better. But who else does the Indian domestic circuit have to offer as replacement?

Once in surplus, spinners in Indian domestic cricket have diminished. All we find are left arm spinners in abundance. All the exciting talents in the spin bowling departments are left arm spinners. Iqbal Abdullah, Pawan Negi, Shahbaz Nadeem, Akshay Darekar make up that list.  Where did the good old offie go? Post Mishra, Chawla, Rahul Sharma we haven't witnessed an exciting young leggie either. Is the modern version of 'wham-boom' cricket turning youngsters away from spin bowling at the fear of being hit out of the park at every given opportunity? Spinners increasingly have begun to use yorkers to get back at the batsmen and not the traditional well flighted ball for deception in flight. Spin was once all about defeating the batsmen with guile and not a yorker or physical intimidation which was the pace bowlers' trait. 

The better spinners around the world today; Saeed Ajmal, Daniel Vettori & Graeme Swann to name a few have depended on their ability to think the batsmen out. Ashwin who started his career doing that, has now taken a step back being defensive in his ideas. Young spinners need constant guidance from seniors. Who better than a Kumble for India to take up the mantle? BCCI on its part must get the likes of Hirwani, Bahutule, Raju to impart their experiences and drill into youngsters the importance of good old drift and flight in their plan to counter the batsman's advances. Can only then hope, we have a happy selection confusion in the spin department. 

Bench Strength. What? Where?

India's test batting woes aren't soon going to end, if the India 'A' team's performance in the Caribbean is anything to go by. Except Pujara, and Rohit Sharma on one occasion, other batsmen just failed to get going against a persistent and hard working West Indies 'A' bowling attack. IPL successes for Rahane & Dhawan didn't seem to count for much as both failed to the capitalize on the golden opportunity. As has been the case lately, consistency seems to elude Rohit Sharma. After a 94 in the first innings of the series, all he could accumulate was 51 runs in the next 5 innings. Manoj Tiwary too couldnt set the stage on fire and only scored one half century in 6 innings. Unimpressive for two of India's brightest young talents. Pujara on the other end was the only one to keep Indian hopes high with stroke filled, patient 252 runs in six innings, also top scoring with a 96*. Wriddhiman Saha gave a good account of himself with two half centuries. Still needs to exude confidence to be the next best wicket keeper batsman in the country after Dhoni.

What this three test series has done is push Pujara way ahead of Manoj Tiwary, Rohit Sharma & Ajinkya Rahane in the running for the replacement for Dravid in the test side. Pujara will be the front runner to take over the no 3 position left vacant by Rahul Dravid. With not more than one season of test cricket left for Tendulkar & Laxman (assumption), India need strong replacements. At this point in time, no one from the younger, inexperienced lot look capable of playing quality pacemen in overseas pitches. If the same two teams clashed in Indian conditions, the results would have been the other way round. That said, Indian bowlers performed admirably while compared to their bat wielding colleagues. Shami Ahmed stood out with 13 wickets from the series. Left arm spinner Akshay Darekar six wicket haul was India's  only 5+ wicket haul in the series whilst the West Indies had five of them. 

Argument could again lead to blaming IPL for everything thats gone wrong with our players' ability to survive test match cricket. But it isn't entirely misplaced. Rahane, Rohit & Dhawan's prolific scores in the IPL or Rahul Sharma & Awana's successes didn't get translated into good performances in tests. Bowlers are still fighting it hard and Shami Ahmed, Dinda, Bhuwaneshwar Kumar and Awana didnt passably well. India surely are going to find it tough to replace Dravid, Tendulkar & Laxman in tests overseas unless there is a radical change in how the BCCI treats younger players. Regular overseas trip a must. Under 19 teams must have camps held in South Africa, England and Australia. Add Robin Bist, Mayank Aggarwal, Suryakumar Yadav, Mandeep Singh & Unmukt Chand to the list of prospective future Indian players, we have an impressive list on paper. On overseas, it would again be the case of paper tigers. 


But for now, can't wait for Pujara to take over Dravid's role and play alongside the stalwarts & Kohli and start laying the foundation for the next gen which will take over in a matter of few years.