All About Twirlymen : Spinners in India now

[Chandan]

All About Twirlymen Ashwin and OjhaÃÔ star turn gives India a spinning hope. BhajjiÃÔ fate rests on his tenacity. ROHIT MAHAJAN Top Indian Debutants *16-136 N.D. Hirwani vs West Indies, Chennai, 1987-88 *9-128 R. Ashwin vs West Indies, Delhi, 2011-12 *8-167 D.R. Doshi vs Australia, Chennai, 1979-80 *7-81 Shivlal Yadav vs Australia, Bangalore, 1979-80 *7-97 M. Patel vs England, Mohali, 2005-06 *7-106 A. Mishra vs Australia, Mohali, 2008-09 *7-116 S. Abid Ali vs Australia, Adelaide, 1967-68 *7-132 V.V. Kumar vs Pakistan, Delhi, 1960-61 What would Harbhajan Singh have done to the West Indians in the first Test in Delhi? Now, thatÃÔ idle speculation, for he didnÃÕ play, dropped as he was from the team. The selectors wanted to know how the upcoming spinners would perform at Ferozeshah Kotla, and not how Harbhajan would. But the consequences were important. The ball kept alarmingly low on occasion, the wicket was slow, the visitors arenÃÕ great players of spin. In the event, Pragyan Ojha and R. Ashwin, HarbhajanÃÔ replacement as an off-spinner, took 16 wickets as India won with five sessions remaining. Harbhajan too bowled around the same time, in a Ranji Trophy match that ended the day the Test started. But it was at Mohali and on a pitiless tracköttar Pradesh scored 92 runs off the 28 overs he bowled; moreover, they withstood all the craftiness he threw at them, denying him a wicket. On Tuesday, Sanjay Manjrekar, not one to mince words, noted: Ũood day for Ashwin means bad day for Bhajji. ItÃÔ as true as that. Bhajji can now do whatÃÔ in his control...bowl his heart out in Ranji. Delhi marked the first Test in which India didnÃÕ play either Anil Kumble or Harbhajan since November 2000. Kumble retired three years ago, with 619 Test wickets; add HarbhajanÃÔ 406 and you get 1025, the highest number of wickets shared by two contemporary spinners for a team. The total for Ojha and Ashwin, man of the match at Delhi, is 58ÃÕhe former played 11 Tests before Delhi. Is this the beginning of an era? Or the end of one? More importantly, what would Harbhajan Singh, the spin heir to Kumble, but a man under siege, do now? He bagged 43 wickets in 12 matches in 2010, but averaged a wincingly high 40; itÃÔ 20 wickets this year at 38. The saving grace has been 25 wickets in five Tests against South Africa in this period. Basically, itÃÔ back to Ranji Trophy for Harbhajan Singh, a format in which heÃÔ played just two matches in nine years for Punjab. Ashwin cites the Ranji Trophy as the fieldwork behind his rise, though heÃÔ become part of the cricketing consciousness only due to the IPL and ODIs, a World Cup winner after having played just nine one-day matches. Even AshwinÃÔ coach, former Tamil Nadu spinner Sunil Subramaniam, puts longer-format cricket on a higher pedestal. ŵhatÃÔ the reason IÃÎ here in Delhi, to watch him in his Test debutê wasnÃÕ interested in watching him in T20s or his ODI debut, says Subramaniam. He says Ashwin is a throwback to an older era of cricketàyoung man with a practice area in his home, a father whoÃÔ mad about the game, constantly plotting new manoeuvres with his ward. Ashwin reinforces the cliche of the ÃÄerebral south Indian cricketerÃ÷heÃÔ very confident and English-articulate, smoothly slipping in terms like ÅÉip movement? ÅÂirspeed? ÅÓevolutions on the ball he puts. Subramaniam says his other wards come and ask him if they could try something differentÃóBut Ashwin comes and tells me that heÃÔ got results from trying something different. And Ashwin is capable of bowling different deliveries, the more visually exciting being the carrom ball, one he flicks with the middle finger. Subramaniam says Ashwin is trying to use the ÅÇull range of the flexibility of the wrist and the rotation of fingers? One of the things heÃÔ trying is to impart more spin with the clockwise movement of the hand at the top of the wrist, to complement the ripping action of the fingers. Ÿith the variations of position of wrist, fingers and placement of the ball, there can be thousands of different combinations, says Subramaniam. Å©eÃÔ mentally agile enough to work on them and more importantly, put them into practice with his long fingers and supple wrists. Being a tall man, AshwinÃÔ not one to flight the ball too much, but that doesnÃÕ seem to be a shortcoming. Former India spinner Maninder Singh has carefully noted all this, and heÃÔ pleased. Ū like the variations heÃÔ got, Maninder says. Å£ecause of that I think heÃÔ going to take wickets on all surfaces. He has been a good bowler in Twenty20, for he tries to bowl wicket-taking deliveries even in that format. IÃÎ pleased heÃÔ not got a defensive mindset. Left-arm spinner Ojha is less of an unknown entity in Test cricket, for he made his debut exactly two years ago. All his 12 Tests have been played in the subcontinent; by far the most pressing challenge was against Australia last yearÃÉe didnÃÕ do too badly, picking up nine wickets in the two victories. HeÃÔ back in the Test team after a year now, this time due to circumstances as the senior spinner, and says he has been helped by the seniors and his time in county cricket. He took 24 wickets at 12.95 for Surrey in the summer. Å¢ll the seniors advised me to play there, for that experience helps you very much, he says. Former India spinner Venkatapathy Raju, who has been observing Ojha since his junior days, says his years in first-class cricket are helping him. Ūf you have to do well in Ranji Trophy as a spinner, youÃ×e got to have variations, and Ojha has them, Raju told Outlook. Å©arbhajan has served India for quite a lot of time, and now there would be good competition. Harbhajan, the fourth spinner after Muralitharan, Warne and Kumble to top 400 wickets, doesnÃÕ really have to prove himselfÃÃr has he? Ÿhy not? asks Maninder. ůow is the time to show his character and come back into the team. HeÃÔ only 31, a time when spinners are at the peak of their game. ItÃÔ a big test of character for him. Maninder says dropping Harbhajan is a ÅÃonus on a bonus for IndiaÃÊt gives young talent an opportunity, and it could fire up Harbhajan to return to his best, what with the tour to Australia coming up next month. With that in mind, what do the 16 wickets by the two spinners signify? Dhoni knows Harbhajan is a proven man, and he did say after the match that it was just one match, and Ã…ÃetÃÔ see what happens in the series. Former captain Bishan Singh Bedi, too, has a Ã…ÃetÃÔ see approach to the new spin duo. ŪÃÅ like to see them bowl to better batsmen, on better wickets for batting, Bedi told Outlook. ŵhis wasnÃÕ a wicket on which one could judge the true abilities of a bowler. Bedi says he especially likes Ashwin, but would like to suspend judgement for now. Perhaps itÃÅ be more interesting to see what Harbhajan does in Ranji. ................................................ Harbhajan, Ashwin, Ojha...How many more quality spinners do we have who can turn up for India whenever required? I think Mishra and Chawla have lost their chances. Don't think it can be "pairavi putra " Rahul Sharma either. Then? Bharghav Bhatt from Baroda looked promising. Iqbal Abdulla from Bombay has good temperament but isn't suited for tests at the moment, yet. Anyone else?

[gaurav92]

We haven't seen much of Rahul Sharma yet so cannot conclude from what we saw only in the IPL.

[rkt.india]

16-136 N.D. Hirwani vs West Indies, Chennai, 1987-88 *9-128 R. Ashwin vs West Indies, Delhi, 2011-12 *8-167 D.R. Doshi vs Australia, Chennai, 1979-80 *7-81 Shivlal Yadav vs Australia, Bangalore, 1979-80 *7-97 M. Patel vs England, Mohali, 2005-06 *7-106 A. Mishra vs Australia, Mohali, 2008-09 *7-116 S. Abid Ali vs Australia, Adelaide, 1967-68 *7-132 V.V. Kumar vs Pakistan, Delhi, 1960-61

Debut match or stats do not give any indication what future holds for anyone. Not one of above mentioned is an Indian spin bowling great. You cannot exclude Rahul Sharma just yet. We only saw him in IPL till now and he was brilliant there so it shows he has some thing in him that is keeping selectors and us interested. I feel he can be better than both Mishra and Chawala.

[gakgupta]

All About Twirlymen Ashwin and OjhaÃÔ star turn gives India a spinning hope. BhajjiÃÔ fate rests on his tenacity. ROHIT MAHAJAN Top Indian Debutants *16-136 N.D. Hirwani vs West Indies, Chennai, 1987-88 *9-128 R. Ashwin vs West Indies, Delhi, 2011-12 *8-167 D.R. Doshi vs Australia, Chennai, 1979-80 *7-81 Shivlal Yadav vs Australia, Bangalore, 1979-80 *7-97 M. Patel vs England, Mohali, 2005-06 *7-106 A. Mishra vs Australia, Mohali, 2008-09 *7-116 S. Abid Ali vs Australia, Adelaide, 1967-68 *7-132 V.V. Kumar vs Pakistan, Delhi, 1960-61 What would Harbhajan Singh have done to the West Indians in the first Test in Delhi? Now, thatÃÔ idle speculation, for he didnÃÕ play, dropped as he was from the team. The selectors wanted to know how the upcoming spinners would perform at Ferozeshah Kotla, and not how Harbhajan would. But the consequences were important. The ball kept alarmingly low on occasion, the wicket was slow, the visitors arenÃÕ great players of spin. In the event, Pragyan Ojha and R. Ashwin, HarbhajanÃÔ replacement as an off-spinner, took 16 wickets as India won with five sessions remaining. Harbhajan too bowled around the same time, in a Ranji Trophy match that ended the day the Test started. But it was at Mohali and on a pitiless tracköttar Pradesh scored 92 runs off the 28 overs he bowled; moreover, they withstood all the craftiness he threw at them, denying him a wicket. On Tuesday, Sanjay Manjrekar, not one to mince words, noted: Ũood day for Ashwin means bad day for Bhajji. ItÃÔ as true as that. Bhajji can now do whatÃÔ in his control...bowl his heart out in Ranji. Delhi marked the first Test in which India didnÃÕ play either Anil Kumble or Harbhajan since November 2000. Kumble retired three years ago, with 619 Test wickets; add HarbhajanÃÔ 406 and you get 1025, the highest number of wickets shared by two contemporary spinners for a team. The total for Ojha and Ashwin, man of the match at Delhi, is 58ÃÕhe former played 11 Tests before Delhi. Is this the beginning of an era? Or the end of one? More importantly, what would Harbhajan Singh, the spin heir to Kumble, but a man under siege, do now? He bagged 43 wickets in 12 matches in 2010, but averaged a wincingly high 40; itÃÔ 20 wickets this year at 38. The saving grace has been 25 wickets in five Tests against South Africa in this period. Basically, itÃÔ back to Ranji Trophy for Harbhajan Singh, a format in which heÃÔ played just two matches in nine years for Punjab. Ashwin cites the Ranji Trophy as the fieldwork behind his rise, though heÃÔ become part of the cricketing consciousness only due to the IPL and ODIs, a World Cup winner after having played just nine one-day matches. Even AshwinÃÔ coach, former Tamil Nadu spinner Sunil Subramaniam, puts longer-format cricket on a higher pedestal. ŵhatÃÔ the reason IÃÎ here in Delhi, to watch him in his Test debutê wasnÃÕ interested in watching him in T20s or his ODI debut, says Subramaniam. He says Ashwin is a throwback to an older era of cricketàyoung man with a practice area in his home, a father whoÃÔ mad about the game, constantly plotting new manoeuvres with his ward. Ashwin reinforces the cliche of the ÃÄerebral south Indian cricketerÃ÷heÃÔ very confident and English-articulate, smoothly slipping in terms like ÅÉip movement? ÅÂirspeed? ÅÓevolutions on the ball he puts. Subramaniam says his other wards come and ask him if they could try something differentÃóBut Ashwin comes and tells me that heÃÔ got results from trying something different. And Ashwin is capable of bowling different deliveries, the more visually exciting being the carrom ball, one he flicks with the middle finger. Subramaniam says Ashwin is trying to use the ÅÇull range of the flexibility of the wrist and the rotation of fingers? One of the things heÃÔ trying is to impart more spin with the clockwise movement of the hand at the top of the wrist, to complement the ripping action of the fingers. Ÿith the variations of position of wrist, fingers and placement of the ball, there can be thousands of different combinations, says Subramaniam. Å©eÃÔ mentally agile enough to work on them and more importantly, put them into practice with his long fingers and supple wrists. Being a tall man, AshwinÃÔ not one to flight the ball too much, but that doesnÃÕ seem to be a shortcoming. Former India spinner Maninder Singh has carefully noted all this, and heÃÔ pleased. Ū like the variations heÃÔ got, Maninder says. Å£ecause of that I think heÃÔ going to take wickets on all surfaces. He has been a good bowler in Twenty20, for he tries to bowl wicket-taking deliveries even in that format. IÃÎ pleased heÃÔ not got a defensive mindset. Left-arm spinner Ojha is less of an unknown entity in Test cricket, for he made his debut exactly two years ago. All his 12 Tests have been played in the subcontinent; by far the most pressing challenge was against Australia last yearÃÉe didnÃÕ do too badly, picking up nine wickets in the two victories. HeÃÔ back in the Test team after a year now, this time due to circumstances as the senior spinner, and says he has been helped by the seniors and his time in county cricket. He took 24 wickets at 12.95 for Surrey in the summer. Å¢ll the seniors advised me to play there, for that experience helps you very much, he says. Former India spinner Venkatapathy Raju, who has been observing Ojha since his junior days, says his years in first-class cricket are helping him. Ūf you have to do well in Ranji Trophy as a spinner, youÃ×e got to have variations, and Ojha has them, Raju told Outlook. Å©arbhajan has served India for quite a lot of time, and now there would be good competition. Harbhajan, the fourth spinner after Muralitharan, Warne and Kumble to top 400 wickets, doesnÃÕ really have to prove himselfÃÃr has he? Ÿhy not? asks Maninder. ůow is the time to show his character and come back into the team. HeÃÔ only 31, a time when spinners are at the peak of their game. ItÃÔ a big test of character for him. Maninder says dropping Harbhajan is a ÅÃonus on a bonus for IndiaÃÊt gives young talent an opportunity, and it could fire up Harbhajan to return to his best, what with the tour to Australia coming up next month. With that in mind, what do the 16 wickets by the two spinners signify? Dhoni knows Harbhajan is a proven man, and he did say after the match that it was just one match, and Ã…ÃetÃÔ see what happens in the series. Former captain Bishan Singh Bedi, too, has a Ã…ÃetÃÔ see approach to the new spin duo. ŪÃÅ like to see them bowl to better batsmen, on better wickets for batting, Bedi told Outlook. ŵhis wasnÃÕ a wicket on which one could judge the true abilities of a bowler. Bedi says he especially likes Ashwin, but would like to suspend judgement for now. Perhaps itÃÅ be more interesting to see what Harbhajan does in Ranji. ................................................ Harbhajan, Ashwin, Ojha...How many more quality spinners do we have who can turn up for India whenever required? I think Mishra and Chawla have lost their chances. Don't think it can be "pairavi putra " Rahul Sharma either. Then? Bharghav Bhatt from Baroda looked promising. Iqbal Abdulla from Bombay has good temperament but isn't suited for tests at the moment, yet. Anyone else?

Missing murali Karthik.....best spinner in india now...

[Chandan]

We haven't seen much of Rahul Sharma yet so cannot conclude from what we saw only in the IPL.

Needs to prove himself at FC level first before he can be seriously considered for tests by both fans and critics. Can't say how/why selectors are interested. Don't know how BCCI got suddenly so impressed by him to hand him even an annual contract which is awarded to only proven performers at test/ODI or at the most FC level. As for Murali Karkik, unfortunately his time is gone! He is over 36 now.

[saneindian]

Suddenly there are a number of left arm spinners in our domestic cricket. Ojha, Bhargav Bhatt (Baroda), Iqbal Abdullah (Mumbai), KP Apanna (Mumbai), Vikas Mishra (Delhi), Harmeet Singh (Mumbai), Aushik Srinivas (TN), Bipul Sharma (Punjab), Shahbaz Nadeem (Jharkhand), Jakati (Goa), Akshay Darekar (Maharashtra), Ali Murtuza (UP), Swapnil Singh (Baroda) etc. Add Jadeja to the list as well. There aren't too many leggies though. Amit Mishra, Pyush Chawla, Rhaul Sharma are the three known names. And there are the likes of Yajuvendra Chahal (Haryana), Chaitanya Nanda (Delhi), Salil Yadav (Gujrat). The cup board looks bare. No wonder the selectors want to try out Rahul Sharma after Mishra and Chawla failed to impress. Even classical off spinners are a rarity and besides Bhajji and Ashwin, there aren't really any promising off spinners. The likes Kamlesh Makwana (Saurashtra), Jalaj Saxena (MP), Yusuf Pathan all are regular wicket takers though with their off spin. Aparajith (TN) is a good talent but its early days for him.

[bajrang]

Needs to prove himself at FC level first before he can be seriously considered for tests by both fans and critics. Can't say how/why selectors are interested. Don't know how BCCI got suddenly so impressed by him to hand him even an annual contract which is awarded to only proven performers at test/ODI or at the most FC level.

along with taking wickets, he had the best economy rate in this year ipl. even better then malinga. for a leggie that's just crazy. enough to get anyboody excited.

[deathmonger]

Needs to prove himself at FC level first before he can be seriously considered for tests by both fans and critics. Can't say how/why selectors are interested. Don't know how BCCI got suddenly so impressed by him to hand him even an annual contract which is awarded to only proven performers at test/ODI or at the most FC level. As for Murali Karkik, unfortunately his time is gone! He is over 36 now.

in a way, fc bowling averages are misleading due to the wide disparity of pitches in the country.

[Chandan]

in a way' date=' fc bowling averages are misleading due to the wide disparity of pitches in the country.[/quote'] There is a wide disparity in the pitches around the world too. And you need to watch the man perform in longer version rather than just go by the average before choosing him.

[ankeetsinha]

Cant believe no one has mentioned Appanna.. He has taken 17 wickets in 2 matches so far this year. (leading wicket taker)

[joylara]

Now Indian cricket team have nice spin attack. India have find many cricket whose spin bowling is so powerful. Even we find that other country's cricketer are not playing very well against out spin attack. And that show the confident level of spin attack of the spinner.

[Chandan]

Ashwin has been disappointing in Kolkatta match bowling long hops and all and he can't even stop the flow of runs here at Mumbai, forget about getting a breakthrough. Ojha too was hot in one inning but went completely off colour in next inning. Will these guys be reliable enough to given the job solely, when three rookie seamers will be operating?

[rkt.india]

Ashwin has been disappointing in Kolkatta match bowling long hops and all and he can't even stop the flow of runs here at Mumbai, forget about getting a breakthrough. Ojha too was hot in one inning but went completely off colour in next inning. Will these guys be reliable enough to given the job solely, when three rookie seamers will be operating?

Unfair expectations. These guys are not Murli, Warne, McGrath, or Styen. They have done well till now. Keep your expectations low. They are all rookies and we still won first 2 tests easily. They should improve as they play. Most bowlers would struggle on flat pitch like it was at Eden Gardens.

[saneindian]

Ashwin has been disappointing in Kolkatta match bowling long hops and all and he can't even stop the flow of runs here at Mumbai, forget about getting a breakthrough. Ojha too was hot in one inning but went completely off colour in next inning. Will these guys be reliable enough to given the job solely, when three rookie seamers will be operating?

Unfair criticism. Ashwin already has 15 wickets in his debut series, Ojha has 13 so far in his comeback series. Both have bowled quite well on flat pitches. Expect them to do more damage as there are 18 more wickets to be taken.

[vvvslaxman]

Mysterious sultans of spin step into the warmth of the mainstream http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/dec/09/mystery-sultans-spin-cricket Mysterious sultans of spin step into the warmth of the mainstream The mystery spin bowler is everywhere but perhaps he is no more than a sign of the grander changes about to sweep cricket Barney Ronay guardian.co.uk, Friday 9 December In most sports the march of progress is a fairly linear business, a matter of faster, higher, stronger, a leotard-clad leaping for the stars. Not so much in cricket, however, which in recent months has instead become more mysterious. A familiar albeit traditionally rather shadowy figure the Mystery Spin Bowler is suddenly everywhere. India have R Ashwin and his finger-flicking darts and slings; Sri Lanka the carom-ball stylings of Ajantha Mendis; and Pakistan their waddling doosra-goblin Saeed Ajmal, who these days simply sidles up to the wicket, stops for a bit and then propels the ball in a thrillingly malevolent flourish of rubbery forearm-flip. This week there was also an international debut for Sunil Narine of West Indies, a bowler who seems to embody most completely this new orthodoxy of the peculiar, an uprising from the margins that is roughly equivalent to everybody everywhere suddenly deciding to become a syphilitic bed‑ridden poet, the nation's commuter trains crammed suddenly with ranks of bowler-hatted existential outcasts. Mystery has gone mainstream, and this is on the face of it a wonderful thing. Personally I have always loved the mystery spinner, so described because the mechanics of his bowling action, and thereby his action on the ball, contain some personalised form of high‑end deception. From Jack Iverson, who took up cricket at 31 and lit up an Ashes series with his dextrous all-sorts, to the fictional Pradeep Mathew, left-arm antihero of the cricket novel Chinaman, the mystery spinner has always been a most alluring outsider. Mystery is an entirely cricket-bound phenomenon. No other sport does this. There are no mystery footballers, no mystery prop forwards, no mystery 10,000 metres runners. Only cricket has this extra dimension of bluff and private craft. Things have changed a little, however, for the new-age mystery men. For a start there is the issue of age. Excessively youthful spin bowlers always used to seem a little callow and raw. Spin bowling, like male-pattern baldness, is a state a man grows into, a condition that only really begins to fit as the years of middle‑age‑dom approach, when a man can truly own his baldness, the prematurely bald man's late-blooming pomp where suddenly the world falls into step and where discreetly bald, tactfully bald finally it is he who has the advantage. So it was once with spin bowling, where age conferred legitimacy. But not so in the new era. Narine, for example, has come from nowhere: even now he has just 37 wickets in all cricket, his reputation based around glimpses in Twenty20 of the homemade "knuckleball", which sometimes nips his flighty off-breaks the other way. The new-age mystery man comes to us like this: ready-made, off the shelf, hungry for a punkish kind of DIY success. There is an arc to his progress: claim a sensational televised three for 12; invent a delivery called the Zangler, the Knucklechuck or the Massive Pie; become the officially recognised next big thing; play a season for the Bangalore Cheesesteaks; get the yips; get no-balled for chucking; have a tantrum while playing for Devon; disappear completely. In favourable conditions there is no reason why all this should take much more than six months. There are those who will say that the gimmickry of the new mystery spinner is a dangerous thing, that it has already replaced leg-spin bowling as cricket's go-to variation. Leg spin is, after all, extremely difficult, a hugely capricious and elusive craft. Mystery spin, on the other hand, is a modern art-ish business of instant impact, a one-trick masterpiece triumphantly unveiled while the classicist is still frowning in his garret over his googly. Narine has good control and an air of shrewdness, but we are unlikely to be still marvelling at the complexities of his very slightly different away-zinger in 15 years' time. Of course, this being cricket the most yeastily alive of all international sports there are wider forces at work. It still seems significant that there has never been an English mystery spinner. The closest thing so far is perhaps the former Warwickshire off‑spinner Maurice Holmes, once billed as "The English Murali", who has been successively no-balled, cut from his county and, no doubt, also regularly beaten up by members of the English Defence League, such were the levels of spluttering alarm at suggestions of elbow-flexing unorthodoxy in his action, the instant cheat-reflex, the whispers of something wonky and crooked at play. Muttiah Muralitharan, the Zeus of mystery spinners, has already shown that greatness is by no means incommensurate with unorthodoxy. And perhaps we should simply see this mini-era of mystery as another sign of cricket's eastern drift. The mystery spinner's natural home is street cricket, the untutored inventions of those who learn to play, not on scholarly fields, but on gravel or concrete or rough matting pitches. The relaxing of rules on straightening of the arm when bowling, succour to the self‑taught mystery man, was bemoaned by many as a collapse of ancient certainties. But whom did the old rules favour? Cricket may be turning its face away from the old orthodoxies but the sport is alive with a junglish life that goes well beyond the knuckleball and the left-arm flan-flick. The mystery man is perhaps no more than a rare bird, a staging point on the road, and a harbinger in his prestidigitations of grander change to come.

[Tendulkar_Bhai]

Any upcoming SPINNERS? There is a craze for fast bowlers currently and we keep reading names like Abu Nechim, Ahmed, Gony, Vinay Kumar (?!) etc etc..but what about quality spinners, especially leg spinners? Chawla is the only one to show any potential, Mishra did poorly in tests. I like Ashwin and he has good variations seen against the WI, but v Aus he has shown he isnt quite as consistent as Kumble yet and when the pitch isnt turning he just chucks it wide. Any exciting youngsters coming through aka Mendis style?

[dragonfly]

Manish Shukla.

[Dravid_TheWall]

There is one that flys like a bird at delivery, Bhajji

[Laaloo]

Harbhajan Singh

[KhanSaab]

Also lets not forget Akhri Khwaish. Great talent from Thiruvananthapuram.

His last name is spelled "Khwahish"