In the last decade or so, Indian spinners in Tests, barring the likes of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, haven’t been able to cement their place in the squad, let alone the playing XI. In the IND vs ENG series, there were a lot of calls, for inclusion of Kuldeep Yadav in the XI, but that just did not happen.
Why Kuldeep Yadav Doesn’t Make it to Test XI?
The likes of Washington Sundar and Axar Patel too have had some good performances, but them playing or getting game time, is just not a given. Okay, lack of trust of the selectors or even the skipper might be just one side of the story, while the other might just have to do with their lack of variation.
Just retired leg-spinner Amit Mishra has opened up on the entire issue. Speaking with RevSportz, he revealed that even though the current bunch of spinners is mighty talented, but they shy away from using variations, which could leave them ineffective. “I think due to the influence of T20, the variety has got suppressed. So, people would only want to bowl their overs and leave,” he said.
T20 Cricket to Blame?
He further added how the generation of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, even Ashwin and Jaddu, used their variations to get wickets. “Spinners in my era like Anil Bhai, Harbhajan – even, say, [Ravinchandran] Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja – they had their variations to show and hence were wicket-taking bowlers with such long careers.
“These days, spinners like Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel have tremendous qualities, but variations are not being used much by them. They need to bd reminded of when to dip the ball, when to bowl slow, when to bowl a googly et cetera.”
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