JOIN USSpin is back in focus at IPL 2020
When the Chandu Borde-led selection panel met to pick the Indian squad for the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985, Sunil Gavaskar asked specifically that L Sivaramakrishnan be included. The 19-year-old leg-spinner had to yet to play a limited-overs international, but the skipper’s contention was that Siva would be more than a handful on the vast grounds at the MCG and the SCG where the tournament was being staged.
Siva didn’t let his captain down. With his mesmeric tricks, he lured batsmen to their doom; true to his captain’s predictions, he picked up wickets with wicked, dipping full-tosses, though it was the way he drew Javed Miandad out of his crease and set up a simple stumping for Sadanand Vishwanath that will remain the abiding memory. Siva’s 10 wickets were the most by any bowler in the competition, a key factor in India’s spectacular title triumph.
Currently in the UAE as a television commentator, Siva must be delighted at what’s unfolding in Season 13 of the Indian Premier League. Spinners, once considered superfluous to white-ball skirmishes, are holding their own; specifically, leg-spinners have carved a niche, from the established Rashid Khan to the emerging Ravi Bishnoi.
Raw pace thrills and excites, but to watch a high-class spinner tease and torment batsmen is infinitely more exhilarating. Fast bowlers threaten limb and body; spinners challenge egos. One is feral, the other ethereal.
It’s not as if, all of a sudden, spin has reared its crafty head. What this season has done is bring them back into focus, thanks largely to the big outfields in Dubai and Abu Dhabi which, thankfully, don’t reward mishits and brute power, and encourage spinners to give the ball air instead of firing it in with an eye on economy alone.
In the infancy of the T20 revolution, the big concern was that the slam-bang format would spell the death-knell of cricket’s most compelling discipline. The new format sprung from the belief that audiences would enjoy nothing more than watching the tiny orb sailing miles into orbit. Consequently, boundaries were brought in, every iota of life squeezed out of pitches. Strong and powerful, batsmen were further spurred by wonderful bats with meaty sweet spots and bulging edges, blurring the line between graceful stroke-play and crude hoicks.
Bowlers grumbled, complained, snarled and moaned, but knew they were always fighting a losing battle. They had to reinvent themselves. For faster bowlers, that meant yorkers and slower deliveries of various ilk; finger spinners went for the carrom ball. The wrist-spinner had to rely on heart and a sympathetic arm around his shoulder, apart from his vast skill.
No one needs a supportive captain more than wrist-spinners. They can be wayward sometimes, but they are wicket-takers and game-changers, even in the 20-over bash. Therefore, it’s imperative that they are treated as such, not expected to compromise on core skills by bowling faster and flatter.
In the aftermath of India’s loss to Pakistan in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017, Virat Kohli decided to plump for wicket-taking options in the middle stages of a 50-over game. Thus, out went the established pair of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, in came the wrist-spinning duo of leggie Yuzvendra Chahal and left-armer Kuldeep Yadav. The results were instantaneous and sustained, until Kuldeep went off the boil during the last IPL, just before the World Cup, and hasn’t been the same bowler since.
Chahal has been a loyal servant of the Royal Challengers Bangalore for several years now, the franchise’s leading wicket-taker despite playing a significant percentage of his matches at the unforgiving Chinnaswamy Stadium. In Dubai and Abu Dhabi, he has relished having the safety net of bigger boundaries. Kohli’s faith in Chahal is no secret, but this year more than ever before, the wrist-spinning contagion is sweeping through franchises, more and more think-tanks beginning to recognise the value of taking wickets.
RCB have played Chahal and Adam Zampa together, Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Tewatia have figured in all of the matches of the Rajasthan Royals. Rashid and Abdul Samad have operated in tandem for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, as have Bishnoi and M Ashwin for the Kings XI Punjab. Each franchise has multiple wrist-spinners to pick from and their faith has been rewarded even if the top three wicket-takers currently are all pacers.
IPL 2020 hasn’t been all about wrist-spin, though. Finger-spinners R Ashwin and Axar Patel haven’t done too shabbily for the Delhi Capitals, while RCB’s Washington Sundar boasts a staggering economy of 4.88 despite bowling most of his 18 overs in the Power Play. Sixes have largely had to be earned, not served on a platter. That’s a welcome, much-needed change from the monotony of 200-plays-200. After all, there’s nothing like spinning a good yarn, is there?
(R Kaushik is a Bengaluru-based cricket writer with nearly three decades of experience)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.