It has been pointed out by experts, supporters and analysts that the selectors led by Ajit Agarkar have selected one spinner too many in their 15-member team for the T-20 World Cup in India: four spinners. In this, “Perhaps another fast bowler” or “Rinku Singh surely” were some of their words.
Rohit Sharma made it clear that he wanted four spinners, and his mind was already set about who would be included in his bowling attack (two all-rounders – also left-arm-spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel plus two wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav) even before IPL began.
“This time I definitely wanted four spinners. We’ve played a lot of cricket there. We know what the conditions are like. With morning starts at 10-10.30am, there’s a little bit of technical aspect involved in this,” skipper Rohit had said in Mumbai when the team was picked.
The other reason given was that morning starts where dew wouldn’t make much of an impact.
India are expected to make it to the super eights and from then every game will be held in West Indies with most people believing their pitches will be spinner friendly hence this might be the technical aspect referred to.
Subramanian is a former India team manager as well as Tamil Nadu’s left-arm-spinner who coached R Ashwin too.
“In fact they may have gone overboard with taking one extra spinning all-rounder. To balance the side better would mean replacing them with Axar Patel (for Rinku Singh) and vice-captain Hardik (for Khaleel Ahmed). They can’t play on both wrist spinners because especially not here in Nassau County which is an infant ground only 55 metres long straight boundary and drop-in pitch. If they go up against Pakistan, they may play only with a single spinner and that could be Jadeja as they might want to pack the side with pacers who can execute yorkers,” he told.
Subramanian was part of the team between 2017 and 2019 where India played both Kuldeep and Chahal in most white-ball games, with success. Will we see that happening in the T20 World Cup?
“Both wrist spinners were included in the playing XI because neither Jadeja nor Ashwin could stem the tide of runs nor take wickets within their spell in the middle-overs,” Subramanian revealed.
The combo famously known as ‘Kul-Cha’ was a runaway hit. They appeared together in 15 T20Is including four out of five matches versus West Indies during 2023 series which all ended up being victories for India. In those 15 games, Kuldeep picked 29 wickets while Chahal harvested another 23. Will they go back to that formula?
“It depends on whether it is a must-win situation or not.” If Hardik is unable to bowl four overs and if one of the pacers gets hit, that may happen. The only other way to play both wrist spinners is by dropping Jaiswal and opening with Kohli and Rohit. They will not do that. They will err on the side of caution,” Subramanian stressed.
India’s batting coach till the 2019 World Cup who was there at least until Kul-Cha era began and former Indian allrounder feels same about this duo again playing together
Bangar was of the opinion that Jadeja and Kuldeep would be the first ones to come to the field. “Let two wrisT spinners not feature in one team,” he says.
In addition, he also does not see India being light on pace bowling options. He told TOI “Even if we had picked an extra pacer, he might not have played. Bumrah, Siraj/Arshdeep and Hardik can go through the tournament unchanged.”
“Ian Bishop, former West Indian fast bowler whose knowledge about local conditions is a great asset during commentary thinks that India’s four spinner theory could just be a luxury besides acknowledging that there will still be some spin in this format,” said Bishop.
His argument holds also because in every single match of CPLT20 so far (over 692 innings), pacers have taken 2384 wickets at a strike rate of 131.31 and an economy of 8.38 while spinners have grabbed 1565 wickets at a better strike-rate of 111.60 and a lower economy of 6.85.
However, according to him, the pitches for the World Cup will differ slightly implying that it is more preferable for India to possess four spinners than it is necessary.” This was his statement as per Star Sports official broadcaster.
For instance Aaron Finch who skippered Australia when they won the title in UAE in2012 believes that India may have painted themselves into a corner by picking four spinners
“I went with Rinku there and just two more tweakers; took another fast bowler because I don’t think anyone else other than Jasprit Bumrah has been consistent. And if they want three slow bowlers one must operate during power-plays; none of those guys are going to do it all the time” Finch analyzed while talking with Star Sports.
Let us now look at possible opposing teams’ spin-bowling choices while we are in the super eights phase.
Sri Lanka has six; England and New Zealand, five. Bangladesh, four; West Indies, Australia and South Africa, three. Do India’s four make them look like luxury? It is a matter of time.
