Note to spinners - the defensive and attacking mindset - by VB Chandrasekar

[fineleg]

Clipped by limited-overs cricket, mistrusted by captains, modern spinners in domestic cricket have been reduced to being containing devices and useful lower-order batsmen Iqbal Abdulla epitomises the modern domestic spinner, someone who is restrictive, takes centre stage only on a breaking turner, and bats competently otherwise In the Ranji Trophy match between Gujarat and Mumbai last week, Iqbal Abdulla and Ramesh Powar didn't bowl much in the first innings as the damage had been done by the three fast bowlers. It was only when the pitch started crumbling in the second innings that Abdulla was allowed a lengthier spell, and picked up wickets. The game summed up his role in the side: a bowling all-rounder, somebody who can bowl a few overs when the fast bowlers get tired, take centre stage only on a breaking turner, and bat competently otherwise. Abdulla is part of the larger trend in domestic cricket where the spinner is taken out off the attack the moment he is hit for some runs. This is not a new phenomenon. The art of spin underwent a major change through the nineties when three-day cricket was followed by the one-dayer, a period when a classical spinner gave way to someone more defensive. The pressure to change and stay effective pulled the plugs on imparting revolutions onto the ball. M Venkatramana, a former Tamil Nadu offspinner, is a perfect example. He was an old-fashioned spinner, but slowly he had to get into the containing mould in one-day cricket. And when he couldn't contain and was smashed around, he lost the heart to spin the ball. Steadily, almost all the spinners in the country have ended up altering their actions, and in certain cases they have started using their elbows more than their shoulders and wrists. Another significant change came around the same period in Indian domestic cricket was when the SG ball was introduced. It supported reverse-swing. This further reduced the opportunities for the traditional spinner. The role of the captain cannot be overstated either. This is about managing a resource that is fast diminishing, but captains remain insensitive. In my days, a spinner required about seven to eight overs to get into a rhythm. They were depended on as match-winners and not partnership-breakers. Piyush Chawla is one of those who could do with a more understanding captain. He has little or no meaningful support from Mohammad Kaif. I feel bad for Chawla: there have been catches dropped off his bowling, and as soon as he goes for runs in his initial few overs, he is removed from the attack. I felt that Chawla had turned a corner after his county stint at Sussex last year. He bowled really well against Sourav Ganguly in Kanpur in a Ranji match. The pitch was not doing much, but he troubled Ganguly and was confident to flight the ball. A year later, everything seems lost. There are two ways to look at his case. One, he does not have an understanding captain who supports him. The other is that the spinner has himself lost confidence in his ability to go through the transition from wanting to restrict to looking to buy wickets. A traditional spinner is not likely to be successful today. The ones who dart the ball in are likely to survive because when they bowl long spells, they often do so on worn-out tracks. Otherwise they try to slip in short quiet spells that give the other bowlers a breather. Abdulla falls in this category. Modern spinners such as Abdulla wait for the footmarks to develop or the pitch to deteriorate. They prefer to be patient as their role has been limited. The pitches, relatively a large percentage of them in domestic cricket, remain scratch proof. This has made them think about improving their batting skills to survive. Sadly captains and coaches are only encouraging such a trend. With their defensive ways, spinners at the moment are forced to find new ways other than their batting to survive. Hence the innovations of the doosra, the carrom ball, and the twitch in the elbow to cause deception. If today's youngsters really want to fall back on the right path, they need not look any further than Anil Kumble. Initially Kumble was only good on breaking pitches, but after years of experience he was willing to throw the ball up, and he developed a googly. It is another thing that he was a great mind and an aggressive competitor who was willing to learn the right things, and duly evolved. He should be the modern Indian spinner's inspiration. SAUCE: here

[The Outsider]

He makes a lot of valid points and is a person I always have time to read and listen to. However, he is over the top in attributing the blame on the captains. Pitches are a major culprit here. A lot of Ranji matches are played on absolute green tops, which give nothing to the spinners on the first day or so. And after that the match is so far progressed that spinners have a limited role anyways, with runs being at a premium. It would be beneficial to Indian cricket as a whole if pitch preparation was done by a centralized, neutral entity rather than local curators, who just go ahead with the desires of the local team. There are only two kinds of pitches in Ranji trophy - a green top and a patta, and yeah a third, a green top which develops into a patta, neither of which are beneficial to developing spinners. It is all well and good for observers to tell spinners to flight the ball more, but I wonder how these same people would react when the spinner gets tonked for 30 runs in 4 overs. There is a match on line, and of course strategies would be changed. We are all having a hearty laugh at Australia for their spinner quandary, but it might not be long before we are in the same situation. And given how dependent India is on spin bowling in home tests, it will have a much bigger impact on us.

[thongale]

A lot of Ranji matches are played on absolute green tops

Means that a decent spinner should prosper on them. Green wicket offer plenty of bounce and spinners who know to use the bounce can bowl very well on them. I can give lots of examples from local circuit. But if I stick to more well known names, Herath and Mendis struggles on green tops because they don't know how to use the bounce. On other hand, Randiv, Senanayake and Murali runs havoc on bouncy pitches because they know how to use the bounce. Randiv especially is not a big turner of the ball but still gets batsmen with bounce. (Other two spin it a big time). The other difference may be that Indian pitches are better batting strips that what we have here. After a period of seam they may settle down. Here, after two aor three hours of seam and swing, ball starts spinning after the tea on first day.

[The Outsider]

Means that a decent spinner should prosper on them. Green wicket offer plenty of bounce and spinners who know to use the bounce can bowl very well on them.

I don't know if you watched the India - South Africa test at Ahmedabad in '08 or the India - Pakistan test at Lahore and Rawalpindi in '04. Those are the green tops that are prepared in a lot of Ranji matches, where the ball jags around like crazy over the first 2 sessions and once the grass dries out settle into batting pattas which would not crumble even on the 8th day. These tracks are prepared by teams who have a good seam line up when they face an opposition bereft of any seam bowlers of quality. The result is that even if they lose the toss and have to bat first, the opposition is not able to exploit the conditions. Yes spinners can get bounce off the grass, but will you back and bowl a spinner in those conditions over a competent seam bowler? Obviously, not. So the only time spinners are doing bowling in Indian FC matches is when the conditions are least conducive to them, forcing them to adopt defensive tactics.

[thongale]

I don't know if you watched the India - South Africa test at Ahmedabad in '08 or the India - Pakistan test at Lahore and Rawalpindi in '04. Those are the green tops that are prepared in a lot of Ranji matches, where the ball jags around like crazy over the first 2 sessions and once the grass dries out settle into batting pattas which would not crumble even on the 8th day. These tracks are prepared by teams who have a good seam line up when they face an opposition bereft of any seam bowlers of quality. The result is that even if they lose the toss and have to bat first, the opposition is not able to exploit the conditions. Yes spinners can get bounce off the grass, but will you back and bowl a spinner in those conditions over a competent seam bowler? Obviously, not. So the only time spinners are doing bowling in Indian FC matches is when the conditions are least conducive to them, forcing them to adopt defensive tactics.

Obviously if seamers are doing well on a green track it's madness to bowl spin, I agree with you. But if I have a Murali or a Randiv in my team who knows very well to use the bounce I'll give a try. Especially in latter 2nd and 3rd sessions, spinner from one end and seamers from other end will do the job. If your spinner bowls threateningly then, your seamer will take more wickets. I am sure that you are much more knowledgeable about local conditions, but I cannot see why a spinner should bowl defensively on a green track, particularly if the top order has been bulldozed by the seamers. Then it is the perfect time to attack for the spinners.

[saneindian]

A number of good points in VB's article. But his criticism of kaif's handling of Chawla is quite harsh. UP have played most of their matches on wickets where the seamers have taken majority of wicket and there has been something for the seamers atall times during the match. And given UP's batting collapses, any captain cannot afford to give a long spell to a bowler who goes for runs. B Kumar, RPS and Tyagi have been the go to men for Kaif this season and they have won matches for UP from impossible situations. No wonder he has got more faith in them in crunch situations. Another thing to note about Chawla has been his over dependence on the googly and top spinners. His leg spinners are normally bowled short and give a lot of width to the batsman. One can't expect a captain to set fields for such bad bowling especially in low scoring matches where UP have been involved in. Just for numbers sake, Chawla has bowled the mximum number of overs in UP this season!! 5 matches, 158 overs, 9 wickets@48. Tyagi, Kumar and RPS have in comparison got 17-18 wickets each! Even for Mumbai, Powar has bowled 185 overs in 6 matches, Abdulla 165 overs. In comparison the max that a Mumbai pacer has bowled is 124 overs by Dhawal Kulkarni.

[putrevus]

A Traditional spinner can always succeed in this game but which Indian spinner is a traditional spinner, all of them look for some magic ball rather than concentrating spinners main weapon spinning the ball. Piyush Chawala never succeeded because he never spins the ball much, he is too reliant on his googly as is Amit Mishra both of them are so slow thru the air and never impart enough shoulder to get more revs and dip needed to get ball spin more. Venkatramana who VB is talking about depended more on flight rather than spin , in today game flight alone will take you no where, new bats and small grounds they will get whacked and they start bowling darts . They have never learnt how to impart more spin the ball , how many off spinners are there in India who can bowl classical off spinners, seam pointing to leg slip and pitching outside the off stump and get the ball turn and dip , that dip is so important for spinner that lock the batsman in the crease. Dip is achieved only by impart more revs to ball for some reason Indians spinners don't have shoulder strength to do it either they float or simply dart.