All About Twirlymen : Spinners in India now

[BeautifulGame]

Lack of experience is costing TN bigtime. Ashwin and Rangarakan are playing their first FC game and Aparajith is playing his 3 rd of fourth

[CricLind]

Lack of experience is costing TN bigtime. Ashwin and Rangarakan are playing their first FC game and Aparajith is playing his 3 rd of fourth

That may be true for Tamil Nadu, but Appanna has played enough matches and even that Raju guy has played 10+ matches. The part-time bowler Amit Verma has played 30+ matches. Besides, there was a time, in the 70's, 80's and even 90's when every major team would have had at least 1 spinner capable of exploiting a pitch like this. Are there any young leggies/offies coming through? Or forgotten men plying away their trade? From the young guns, most of them appear to be SLA such as Vikas Mishra, Harmeet Singh, Darekar, Aushik Srinivas, Bhatt, etc.

[rkt.india]

Murugan looks a decent prospect.

[rkt.india]

leg spinner Murugan turning the ball square bit inconsistent. England batsmen will dance if they get this kind of turn.

[BeautifulGame]

^ does he have a decent google?

[jairamesh]

Shabaz Nadeem, another left arm tweaker but is having an excellent start to the season, 9 wkts in the first game, and already got 8 wickets in the ongoing second game! Although both games have been against relatively weak Ranji sides, J&K and Assam.

[Crookbond]

I have said earlier that Nadeem has to be looked at for T20. He's the ideal spinner for the format and the next WT20 is in Bangladesh which will have pitches that assist spin.

[rkt.india]

^ does he have a decent google?

yeah but he is very inconsistent. needs lot of practice.

[nsareen]

I like TN's legspinner, he has a lot of potential, the way he turns the ball square is amazing to see, also has a nice googly, although a noticeable change in action but I'm excited by the prospect of having two ashwin's in the team, one off and one leg spinner.

[CricLind]

He's bowled 22 overs without a wicket. On a square turner, even for a debutant, that's pretty poor.

[rkt.india]

He's bowled 22 overs without a wicket. On a square turner' date=' even for a debutant, that's pretty poor.[/quote'] he got a lot of close calls, but was more often inconsistent which can be work upon through practice. TN coach needs to work a little extra with him. He can be a real good spinner because he xan turn his leg spin a long way.

[Crookbond]

Who can fill the Kumble void?

When IndiaÃÔ new selection committee announced an India A side without a single frontline spinner, it seemed to be a strategic move. With a further two warm-up matches and less than 50 overs of spin sent down by specialists, there was no room left for doubt. Along with being strategic, however, the move also seemed a tad defensive, though still with considerable merit. If faith in EnglandÃÔ ineptness against spin is high, the quality of R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha as the premier spinners in the country undoubted, and turning tracks forthcoming, would England have really benefitted from facing lesser spinners in the warm-ups? Would any number of spinners in the warm-ups have caused England to be more sure against spin when Anil Kumble was donning the whites for India? Because KumbleÃÔ career also coincided with possibly the finest batting line-up assembled for India, he is often not given the credit he deserved for being a match-winner nonpareil. His overall numbers 619 wickets at an average of 29.65 and a strike-rate of 65.99 are very impressive, but perhaps not awe-inspiring when the average and strike-rate are looked at superficially. To truly understand the magnitude of KumbleÃÔ bowling and his subsequent absence, it is necessary to delve a little deeper into the figures. The following table has KumbleÃÔ home and away figures. No code has to be inserted here. *The figures donÃÕ include a match played in the Asian Test Championship in February 1999 against Sri Lanka at Colombo. Technically, this was an away match, but since series results will be looked at, this series canÃÕ be classified ÁÉome or ÁÂway with matches in India and outside. Kumble took 4/134 from 54.1 overs in the match. It is evident that the ÁÉome figures are fit to rank in the all-time-great category whichever way they are looked at. The ÁÂway figures, though, seem to substantiate the charge that he wasnÃÕ as effective outside India. Those numbers are worth examining in a little more detail. A lot of KumbleÃÔ bowling away from India came in series in which the batsmen floundered spectacularly, with the result that Kumble was always bowling with less-than-adequate runs to play with. Any spinner from grade cricket onwards will confirm that to play an attacking role, the buffer of runs is necessary. An attacking spinner will have to budget for the occasional straying from the line that can be picked off easily. If there arenÃÕ enough runs on the board, that picking off is fatal. In a career spanning from 1990 to 2008, Kumble often toured with an Indian team that lacked the nous to succeed away from familiar shores. It is reasonable to suppose that without enough runs on the board, Kumble would have been forced to play a role that put as much of a premium on containment as getting wickets. And this in addition to the fact that for a start, pitches outside the subcontinent rarely favoured spinners anyway. Kumble is not known to raise his voice in anger (except perhaps when denied an appeal!), but he did once say that if the batsmen could do a better job, heÃÅ have the results to show for it. Batting has always been IndiaÃÔ traditional strength, and it was a fair ask for a man who had to shoulder a huge proportion of the bowling burden. It wasnÃÕ just talk though. Scratch below the surface of the ÁÂway numbers and youÃÍl see that it was backed by action. There is a stark difference in KumbleÃÔ figures in series in which the Indian batsmen averaged 35 or more, as against series in which they averaged less. Kumble in away matches: No code has to be inserted here. The average is separated by almost four points, but the big difference is in the strike-rate, with Kumble picking up wickets significantly quicker. A look at the economy rates column indicates that the attack-versus-containment argument seems to hold. Given runs to play with, Kumble attacked more, and got wickets quicker, but with fewer runs to defend, he seems to have concentrated on not giving too much away. Part of the India-England legacy, so richly illustrated by Mohandas Menon on this website, involves a match at Old Trafford in August 1990. It might be remembered more as the match in which Sachin Tendulkar scored the first of what would be an unimaginable number of international hundreds, but it also marked the debut of the man who was to become IndiaÃÔ bowling equivalent of Tendulkar. When England came touring in early 1993, Kumble established himself as IndiaÃÔ first-choice spinner, with a Man-of-the-Series turn of 21 wickets in three Tests. The old enemy is at the gate again, and India will be hoping that someone steps in to fill the void left by their greatest match-winner.

[Trichromatic]

Ojha completely outbowled Ashwin in 1st test. He is now at 5th in ICC rankings. :clap: [table=head]ID Rat. Name Nat. Career Best Rating 1 859 D.W. Steyn SA 902 v Australia, 09/11/2011 2 840 V.D. Philander SA 852 v England, 16/08/2012 3 832 Saeed Ajmal PAK 836 v Sri Lanka, 22/06/2012 4 828 H.M.R.K.B. Herath SL 828 v New Zealand, 17/11/2012 5 764 P.P. Ojha IND 764 v England, 15/11/2012 6 741 B.W. Hilfenhaus AUS 757 v West Indies, 19/04/2012 6 741 J.M. Anderson ENG 813 v India, 10/08/2011 8 734 P.M. Siddle AUS 768 v India, 24/01/2012 9 721 M. Morkel SA 776 v Australia, 09/11/2011 10 705 K.A.J. Roach WI 712 v New Zealand, 02/08/2012 11 704 Abdur Rehman PAK 739 v England, 03/02/2012 12 699 G.P. Swann ENG 858 v Pakistan, 26/08/2010 13 694 S.C.J. Broad ENG 783 v West Indies, 17/05/2012 14 665 Zaheer Khan IND 752 v South Africa, 26/12/2010 15 646 Shakib Al Hasan BAN 680 v West Indies, 29/10/2011 16 615 S.T. Finn ENG 621 v South Africa, 16/08/2012 17 610 C.S. Martin NZ 669 v South Africa, 07/03/2012 18 595 R. Ashwin IND 595 v England, 15/11/2012 19 584 Umar Gul PAK 642 v England, 03/02/2012 20 581 R.J. Harris AUS 614 v West Indies, 11/04/2012[/table] Is it first time that we have a bowler in top 5, but no batsman even in top 10?

[Sidhoni]

Top-5! :hatsoff: @Vib - yes, I guess it has to be the first time, a very rare moment.

[putrevus]

This is the best I saw Ohja bowl in tests, the angle he created from wide of crease was simply awesome.Hope he does well in rest of series.

[vvvslaxman]

This is the best I saw Ohja bowl in tests' date=' the angle he created from wide of crease was simply awesome.Hope he does well in rest of series.[/quote'] +1 Usually he bowls a slightly containing length. But he was giving lot of air. He will definitely do better with more life in the pitch. England is loaded with right handers. He can wreak havoc on a turning surface.

[Gunner]

Ojha should have been the MOM. You only have to look at Ashwin's figures to see how difficult and slow the pitch was for the spinners. His best performance so far.

[putrevus]

Ashwin has lot to prove also it is one thing taking wickets against WI and NZ as evidence by Herath they are just hopeless. Even though WI played both ohja and Ashwin very well in three innings out of six.Ashwin needs to do well in next 7 tests.

[vvvslaxman]

Ashwin has lot to prove also it is one thing taking wickets against WI and NZ as evidence by Herath they are just hopeless. Even though WI played both ohja and Ashwin very well in three innings out of six.Ashwin needs to do well in next 7 tests.

As long as they complement well we are good. Problem will be when both suck at the same time. Rightnow they do well in alternate matches. If there is a situation where only one spinner is going to be picked Ashwin will be picked due to his batting skills.

[putrevus]

As long as they complement well we are good. Problem will be when both suck at the same time. Rightnow they do well in alternate matches. If there is a situation where only one spinner is going to be picked Ashwin will be picked due to his batting skills.

India's tail is very long compared to what England has Ashwin has showed he can be very good for no8. But he needs to pick up like 30 wickets in the series for India to clean sweep. Ohja and Ashwin have to account for at least 15 wickets per test. they got 13 in first.