Is spin a worry for India?

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More... Team India lacks match-winning spinners: Prasanna PTI Friday, January 30, 2009 17:42 IST New Delhi: Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men lack a genuine match-winning tweaker, according to former India spinner Erapalli Prasanna, who reckons spin as the weakest link of the current Indian Test squad. The 68-year-old veteran feels India's most successful spinner Anil Kumble's retirement has left a vacuum in the Indian team and although offie Harbhajan Singh is the only dependable spinner, he is not consistent enough. "According to me, the current Indian team does not have any match-winning spinner. Harbhajan Singh is the only bowler but he is not taking as many wickets as expected of him. Plus his absence from the tour of Sri Lanka left the team in doldrums. Spin is the weakest link in the Indian team for Sri Lanka tour," Prasanna said from Bangalore. "Definitely there is a void after Anil's retirement. Harbhajan is a good bowler but is not among wickets. He could not go to Sri Lanka thus the absence of Kumble is really being felt now," he added. Prasanna, who played 49 Tests during 1962-1978 taking 189 wickets, feels Team India needs wicket-taking spin bowlers to win Tests on a regular basis and despite a decent show in the recent past, India's bowling combination lacks firepower and consistency. "Our spin bowlers have performed reasonably well in the recent past. But tailormade pitches also helped them. A real test of their mettle would be on good sporting tracks abroad where you have to maintain consistency and I don't think the current spin combination fits the bill." "In Test cricket, the overs between 30-80 are the most important. You have to bowl really well and take maximum wickets. Here spinners play a major role and I am afraid that Dhoni's team does not have experienced and effective spinbowlers who can dominate proceedings." Prasanna said. Prasanna feels a wind of change is blowing across the Indian team with the pacers emerging as 'trumpcards' but reckoned it needs to be backed up by quality spin bowling. "Pacers have replaced spinners. This is a refreshing change. Especially Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma are performing really well. But we must have good spinners as back up to balance the composition as spin has been our traditional strength," he said. Prasanna also rues the lack of quality spinners in international arena as well. "Apart from (Muttiah) Muralitharan I don't find any spinner in world cricket who can win matches on his own. I was quite impressed with Monty Panesar but after England team's tour of India I was forced to change my opinion," he said.

[EnterTheVoid]

well, mr prasanna, spinners don't grow on trees you know we've got to make amends with what we've got

[flamy]

He is right. It is interesting though that SA and India both lack in this area, with India having slightly better options.

[msb1991]

Prasanna seems to be glossing over the fact that many of our match winning spinners of the past built their careers playing on Indian pitches which would currently not be sanctioned by the ICC without some sort of punishment.

[DomainK]

He is correct. After Anil Kumble, we just dont have a match winning spinner. But thankfully our fast bowling has been very impressive.

[Chandan]

'Googly doesn’t create careers' ‘Googly doesn’t create careers’ The urge among young leggies to try to bowl googly is damning. As soon as a kid starts doing it, he gradu- ally fails to inculcate the art of leg-spin. —NARENDRA HIRWANI Bivabasu Kumar WHEN AMIT Mishra was being massacred by South Zone’s Subramaniam Badrinath and Rahul Dravid, one man was waiting anxiously to see the North Zone leg-spinner turn the tables. Central selector Narendra Hirwani finally got his wish when Mishra’s peach of a delivery rattled Dravid’s woodwork. It was a victory of spin and Hirwani was no doubt pleased as a punch when HT caught up with him. Excerpts… Q. Why’s there a dearth of quality leg-spinners in the country? I don’t know why, I am as surprised as you are. Most of the youngsters playing at the junior level have awkward bowling actions and are trying to imitate other spinners rather than be original. The silkiness and rhythm of delivering a leg-spinner is missing. Q. What is the common mistake committed by budding leg-spinners? The urge among young leggies to try to bowl googly is damning. As soon as a kid starts doing it, he gradually fails to inculcate the art of leg-spin. Googly produces quick wickets, but does not create a career. Q. What is the right age to start learning how to bowl a googly? Kids below 14 years should never be allowed to attempt a googly My own son Mihir Hirwani is a leg-spinner and I have strictly barred him from bowling a googly. He plays for MP and is just 14 years-old. It is a suicide to not learn the art of fully using your wrists and fingers in order to give the ball maximum revolutions, which is what leg-spin is about. Q. Do you think today’s spinners lack the motivation to bowl leg-spin? No. To be a good leg-spinner you need dedication, not motivation. I used to bowl for six hours every day at my backyard and at the nets. Unless you have that imaginary line in your mind, something that you hone by bowling at a single stump, you cannot dream of being a successful leg-spinner. Q. What are the three things most essential for a good leg-spinner? Intelligence, imagination and intuition. A good leg spinner should be able to predict how the batsman will try to play him. Look at Shane Warne, he could turn the ball from outside the leg stump to knock off your off stick. If you know the art to spin, you are simply invincible. __________________________________________________________ I think I fully agree with Hirwani and this that the main reason for Piyush Chawla's lack of growth as a spinner has been that googly. He was given the break too early and in an eagerness to take wickets to impress the selectors and keep his place in the side, he became over reliant on googly. So much so that he has forgotten how to bowl a leg break and is too predictable now even at the domestic level. What a pity that we could not nurture and guide properly a budding leggie and he has been reduced to a nothing!! I wish we spot a young leggie and give him proper guidance. What about M. Suresh? Wish I could watch him!

[graphic23]

Because of this, I'm very very happy that Anil Kumble will come into coaching because he's someone who developed various deliveries relatively late in his career (5-6 years later) and I think he will stress the importance of the leg-break and accuracy over the use of googly. Even Harbhajan has had the same problem. He bowled his googly way too often. I am wondering why with such a great spin attack we had in the late 70s and early 80s, we're unable to use their expertise in coaching young spinners. As annoying as Bishan Bedi is, he was an excellent spinner, as was Prasanna, Chandrasekhar, Hirwani, etc. I'm quite disappointed with Chawla's unsuccessful career so far. He bowled Sachin at a very young age, troubled the Englishmen in the 2007 summer, etc. I hope he gets coaching and can come back to compete for the national spot.

[bunny]

I kind of disagree with Hirwani. It's not that one shouldn't bowl googly, but rather one should first focus on their strengths and make it perfect. So, you can't expect Kumble to figure out how to bowl big leg spinners. He focussed on his strength which was line, length, bounce and flipper, and it worked for him. Same with Ajantha. Same with Mushi and Qadir who got many wickets through googlies. Chawla and Mishra should actually go and perfect their googlies. Make sure that whenever they bowl the googly it lands on the perfect line and length. In fact make it their stock delivery (or at least bowl it a few times an over), and then surprise people with their leg spinners. Rather the other way round. The reason being that their leg spinner isn't great. So they won't trouble batsmen through their leg spinners. You can't expect bowlers to suddenly learn to rip leg spinners. Otherwise every player would be a Shane Warne, Tendulkar or a Federer.

[Rajan]

Chawla bowls excellent googlies. but his leg breaks dont turn big. generally leggies are erratic, bowl at least one 4 ball every over. an half tracker or a full toss.that was the general trend until Mr.Shane warne re-discovered himself after getting molested in his debut by Ravi shastri and SRT.leggies look great bowlers when they hit the right length and are unplayable when they do that consistently like Qadir/Warne and even Mishra.but L.Siva, Hirwani were erratic and sorted out by batsmen. I was an admirer of L.Siva and watched him from school cricket to state team , under 19 indian team and his rapid rise in Indian team under sunil.he was unbelievable in 1985 B&H where indians won beating pakistan twice and remained unbeaten right thro the tournament defeating england, NZ, Australia on the way.Gavaskar trusted him and Siva did not let him down.picked crucial wickets in the middle overs. just after that win came the famous win against pakistan in sharjah- where we bundled out Pak for 87. Siva took 2 wickets and one was Imran, a very good player of spin. the delivery in which he beat an advancing Imran in the flight and pegged his stumps back , is still in my mind!he beat another one with a similar ball. had good variations too. but 'grassed' his career! Leg Spinners,what Great species!

[Dirty_South]

i read the title as - Google doesn't create careers :((

[Sachinism]

Is spin a worry for India? In 2 games against SL our spinners have only managed to get 2 wickets among them Only 1 per game Does this put extra pressure on the seamers? If the seamers aren't able to deliver in one of the games and not take wickets up front, SL will be able to take advantage of our "5th bowler" On the upside SL spinners have only got 4 wickets and they have M&M

[cowboysfan]

yes it is a worry but they have at least managed to keep it tight and not go for too many runs.its surprising since i thought the lankans would go after the parttimers but that has not been the case.

[The Outsider]

Probably. Chawla, I've always maintained is very pedestrian. Ojha does seem to have the goods. Mishra should ideally be kept for test matches. Having said that, a series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka is not the ideal place to judge Indian spinners. Indian spinners have traditionally struggled there because Sri Lanka are good players of spin and the pitches there are pretty different from the ones Indian spinners bowl on in India. Finger spinners are not effective on most pitches and ideally we should be investing more in wrist spin.

[Sachinism]

One spinner I feel deserves another chance is Murali Kartik

[hassan_113]

Defo agree about Kartik- get him in.

[flamy]

Yeah Kartik was good. Poor sob appears on TV panels now :((

[fineleg]

One spinner I feel deserves another chance is Murali Kartik

Agreed - it is worth giving a couple of series to M. Kartik.

[punjabi_khota]

Someone missing Bhajji ?:giggle:

[Sachinism]

Bhaji is injured and even with him around, I'd like to see Kartik given another chance

[cowboysfan]

Bhaji is injured and even with him around' date=' I'd like to see Kartik given another chance[/quote'] that would mean we have to pick 2 spinners-highly unlikey(unless its a rank turner) and especially with the new powerplay rules.