Of Spinning-and-Batting

Indian spinners have been known as major threats to opposition batsmen. The dominance of the Indian tweakers reached a crescendo in the 1970s, with Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Bishen Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan hunting together, much to the peril of the batting opponents. The fearsome foursome spinning a web meant that the batsmen facing the music were dancing to their tunes, with wickets falling like nine-pins. These four were characterized by their amazing consistency and longevity.

It was precisely these clinching qualities that went missing from the next breed of spinners that the Indian domestic cricket churned out at the disposal of the national selectors. Narendra Hirwani and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan began with a bang. But like Maninder Singh and Arshad Ayub, they flattered to deceive. Erratic form and lack of fitness meant that they were not to be relied on. Kirti Azad and Ravi Shastri were all-rounders struggling to excel in either bowling or batting. Shastri continued for long as a useful and effective all-rounder, particularly in the shorter version of the game, especially with him being tried to reasonable effect as an opener in both forms of the game, primarily as a sedate foil to the swashbuckling Srikkanth. Azad, with ordinary form and average performance, was dumped for good, as Hirwani and Maninder, and to a less extent, Ayub, kept coming in and going out of the Indian squad. Others like Saradindu Mukherjee too got a look-in, without much success, though.

As Shashtri and Srikkanth turned their arms over, with the latter becoming the first Indain to claim five wickets in a One-Day International, newbies like Anil Kumble and Venkatapathy Raju were slowly and surely taking charge. The spark to the flagging graph of Indian spin bowling was provided by the spin trio of Anil Kumble, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan in India’s home series against England in 1993, following a string of disappointing outings in Australia and South Africa, that included an early exit from the 1992 World Cup. Relieved by the slow, low tracks back home, the veteran batsmen took charge and made merry against a largely inexperienced English bowling. The less reputed spinners ensured that the more illustrious opponent batting line-up featuring the likes of Graham Gooch, Mike Gatting, Allan Lamb, Robin Smith, among others were biting dust.

While Kumble never had to look back, Raju and Chauhan quietly complemented him in both forms of the game, especially at home. The off-spinner Chauhan was especially known for his miserly line and length. However, with the left-armer Raju lacking in consistency and being a dud with the bat, spinner all-rounders like Utpal Chatterjee and Sairaj Bahutule were tried, with both failing to live up to the expectations they raised by means of their consistently striking performances both with the ball and with the bat in domestic circuit.

In the shorter version of the game, while Raju finally made way for Sunil Joshi, Chouhan’s mantle was taken over by Nikhil Chopra. Both were strikingly similar in the result they produced. Both Joshi and Chopra were economical with the ball and neat strikers of the cricket ball with the willow in their hands. Joshi, however, struggled at the hands of the Pakistani batsmen in particular, who used their feet well against him. The result was that he never really could graduate to becoming a regular in the Indian side, especially since one-day all-rounders like Robin Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Ajay Jadeja, Vijay Bharadwaj, as also Nikhil Chopra delivering the goods, with Sairaj Bahutule and Gyanendra Pandey also in the fray, coupled with the lurking presence of Venkatapathy Raju.

Rahul Sanghvi in one-dayers and Nilesh Kulkarni in Tests were looking to make their mark, but never capitalized on the promising starts they had to the international careers. Alleged involvement in the betting scandal meant that Chopra’s peaking career graph plummeted, never to recover, with similar treatment doled out to Jadeja. India was seemingly following the Sri Lanka model with more-than-handy use of and performance from the effective all-rounders, especially in the shorter version of the game. While Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumara Dharmasena and Aravinda DeSilva ably complemented Muttiah Muralidhran in both forms of the game with amazing consistency, India’s Anil Kumble never really had one settled slow-ball partner. For Sri Lanka, Arjuna Ranatunga, Asanka Gurusinha and Hashan Tillakaratne were not too bad with the ball either. Incidentally, Sri Lanka also had enough ammunition in the arsenal in the form of Upul Chandana and Ruwan Kalpage, followed by Tillakakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold nowadays, to go with Thilan Samaraweera, Malinga Bandara, Rangana Herath and Kaushal Lokuarachchi of and on.

But such a model has never really materialized for India. Anil Kumble’s encouraging batting, exemplified by his four Test fifties, with a highest of 88 against Proteas’ fast and furious pace battery on a sporting Eden Gardens pitch has been allowed to slump. Aussie Jason Gillespie, meanwhile has a Test best of 201 not to his credit, albeit against Bangladesh.

Despite his uncanny knack of parting ways with picking up wickets, which is deepening the furrows in the foreheads of the national selectors and Team India think-tank, and the blue billion fans at large, Harbhajan Singh, has continued to pose threat to and win respect of opposition batsmen since his mauling of the Aussies in 2000-01. His batting, a polished version of the kind of willow-wielding his Lankan counterpart, Muttiah Muralidharan is known for, has never really been allowed to blossom. Both Singh and Murali visibly enjoy their batting. But while the latter’s batting can be put as an adventure of a No.11, Singh is more mature and hence, more reliable with the bat – he was the able associate of Samir Dighe when the two steered India to a historic home series win over the otherwise invincible Aussies in 2000-01. Unlike Muralidharan, Harbhajan is not the ‘ball se bat takdaye, job hi ho anjaam’ guy.

But Team India has by and large been too conventional to think and act out of the box. Remember the furore, when Guru Greg Chappell consistently sent Irfan Pathan at one-down in ODIs? A leaf can of course be taken out of the book of Australia, which has tried bowling all-rounder Shane Watson at the top of the order with good success. Closer home, Pakistani Abdul Razzaq, starting off as a listless bowler, and even more hopeless a batsman, is now a threat to any bowling line-up, apart from keeping it tight and picking wickets with the ball.

Leave alone Harbhajan, whose batting is decent in terms of what can be expected off a bowler, has Ajit Agarkar who came into the Indian team as a genuine all-rounder, ever been nurtured as Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof is being backed? In India, Ajit Agarkar’s batting is talked about primarily in terms of the string of seven consecutive ducks that he scored in Tests against Australia. That’s something amazing and amusing. Having said that, is there enough consideration to his 109 not out against England at Lord’s in 2002? What was the complement that he received for his highest ODI score of 95, batting at No.3 against West Indies at Jamshedpur in 2002? – that he shouldn’t have batted like the regular at the spot, VVS Laxman. But who cares who scores the runs, as long as they are scored? – may be it’s not quite as simple in India… Skipper Sachin Tendulkar’s experimentation with Laxman’s spinning skills, however, incidentally, weren’t of much help for India in its Caribbean tour of 1996-97.

It is understandable that Noel David, projected as a batsman who can spin, never got on an extended run with the Indian team – there are always too many better batsmen and bowlers vying for the Indian cap. He was only at best a bits-and-pieces cricketer – reliable neither with the ball nor with the bat. But, it is bewildering why the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh are never groomed as all-rounders; these regular batsmen are always just part-time bowlers. If you are in need of all-rounders and don’t have quality readymade ones at your disposal, then why not develop these batting regulars into all-rounders, at least for the one-dayers? Instead, you end up never giving their due to the likes of Sanjay Bangar and Jai Prakash Yadav; they at least have their ‘bits and pieces’ packaged into a neat and organic whole – good enough to nag the position into giving in.

Look, how Dinesh Mongia’s bowling has been made use of in the county circuit. With the exception of Robin Singh in ODIs, there has hardly been in any all-rounder serving the national side for with substantial success for any reasonable length of time. Mohammad Kaif, who was an effective spinner in the junior level, hardly got an opportunity to turn his arm for the senior side. Murali Karthik’s case goes the other way round. In the limited opportunity that he has got in Indian team, his bowling wasn’t inspiring, but consistent success at the domestic level means that this spinner who has batted high up the order for Railways is always in the fray. His batting has been only a shade better charted by the Team Indians, than Kaif’s bowling. The likes of Sarandeep Singh and Amit Mishra, both of whom have had their stints with Team India, have, to their discredit, thus far failed to keep the national selectors busy. Rajesh Powar, instead earned a berth in India’s Test squad for the tour of Bangladesh in 2007. A handy all-rounder, he didn’t make it to the final eleven though.

The current eye-candies, young Piyush Chawla and veteran Ramesh Powar are well and truly all-rounders. Chawla, in particular, has all the qualities of shining an all-rounder in Tests as well. Of course, bowling is the priority of both, and this is what India needs from them the most. But that shouldn’t mean that their obvious batting talent is undermined, especially in face of apprehensions and allegations that too much batting waned the bowler in Irfan Pathan. Having said that, there is still no reason why Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj won’t be given more responsibilities to spin a trick or two. This applies particularly to Sehwag and Yuvraj who are on the right side of 30s. Yuvraj, 25, by the way and in fact, is one of the fittest Indian cricketers around.

With Harbhajan, Chawla and Powar being the current immediate choices to take over from Kumble on a more regular basis and with greater quality and consistency, the part-timers can and should now be made ready to hold fort with competence whenever need arises to that effect. With bowlers being groomed to bat better and batsmen developed to take greater responsibility with the ball on a more regular basis, only Indian cricket can benefit, especially since spin is supposed to be physically less taxing than faster bowling. That, of course, doesn’t clear the doubt as to why Sourav Ganguly’s golden arm with the ball wasn’t tried out oftener than it actually was, in helpful conditions in his heyday… Also, more and better spinners in the squad will mean that Indian batsmen will undergo quality and extended spin sessions at the nets, so that they play a Murali, or a Kaneria, or a Vettori or a Giles better than how they tend to end up playing.