How the white-ball quartet spun a triumph

Dubai: In the 1960s and '70s, India strung together a spin quartet for the ages. True, there had been many stalwarts previously – Vinoo Mankad, Subhash Gupte and Bapu Nadkarni among them – but India’s legacy as the home of spin was cemented in the era of EAS Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar, Bishan Bedi and S Venkataraghavan.

In 1985, Sunil Gavaskar extended that legacy by fielding a leg-spinner in a One-Day International to complement a left-arm spinner. L Sivaramakrishnan hadn’t played a single ODI when he was picked to partner Ravi Shastri at the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. The skipper’s contention was that on the longer grounds Down Under, Siva would be a handful, even if he bowled long-hops and full tosses. He stood vindicated when the little leggie from Tamil Nadu finished as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker with 10 scalps, two more than Shastri, and India won all five matches on their way to the title. Coincidentally, Monday was the 40th anniversary of that spectacular triumph.

Rohit Sharma went a few better last year, at the T20 World Cup, when he plumped for four spinners. One of them, Yuzvendra Chahal, didn’t even get a game as India, again unbeaten, brought home the title. Four spinners, a bit much, you thought? Think again.

For the Champions Trophy, Rohit outdid himself. He had five spinners – that’s correct, five of them – in the 15-strong party, including a late inclusion, another leg-spinner from Tamil Nadu who had only one ODI. Like Siva, Varun Chakravarthy was one of the stars 40 years on, finishing with the second most wickets (nine), only one behind Matt Henry.

Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel aren’t in the Prasanna-Chandra-Bedi-league. They don’t claim to be. But they don’t have to be, do they? They are playing in a different era, in an entirely different format. The way they go about their business is completely different to how the legends did in the five-day game. And yet, the cricket world has seen nothing like them. The limited-overs world hasn’t, at the very least.

Two of them are wrist-spinners, the other two left-arm finger spinners. Three of them take the stock ball away from the right-hander – or at least they are expected to, though Chakravarthy relies heavily on the googly and Axar liberally uses the one that goes on with the arm. Jadeja and Axar run through their overs at the rate of knots, hardly allowing the batter to settle down and possessing the uncanny knack of landing the ball on a five-paisa coin – if you can find one. Kuldeep, despite having been around for eight years, 13 Tests, 113 ODIs and 40 T20Is, is still impossible to read with any certainty, as Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson, New Zealand’s centurions in the semifinal win against South Africa, found out in the final. Individually, each of them is a handful. Collectively, they are, to borrow from an old ad, neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride.

Rohit’s big challenge, once Chakravarthy joined the established trio from match three, was when and how to use them. All four are happy bowling in the Powerplay, all four are adept at the death, when they have the luxury of a fifth boundary-rider. They thrive in the middle overs when there is even a little bit of assistance and when they know they can hustle and harry batters of all pedigree with pace and guile and angles. Only one of them, and you can negotiate with care. Two, you can handle with commonsense. Three can be a challenge, but how do you tackle four? Who do you identify as the weak link? Especially when there is nary a sign of weakness, when going after them comes with blaring warning bells?

India drew performances from all the 12 who played in the Champions Trophy. But these four? They were in a league of their own. Between them, they took 26 for 738 in 163.3 overs – average 28.38, economy 4.52. What’s that they say? If Chakravarthy don’t get you, Kuldeep will…

Axar Patel 

Varun Chakravarthy

Ravindra Jadeja