When India first dropped Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja from the limited-overs sides, they were apparently “rested”. While Jadeja made a comeback, Ashwin was seen nowhere near the limited-overs setup since. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have taken over and ruled the roost but in the shortest format of the game, is there another transition going on?
The issue for India in the 2017 Champions Trophy was that despite Ashwin and Jadeja clocking decent numbers prior to the tournament, the trend was slightly shifting with opposition becoming more at ease against these spinners. India failed to take note of that and paid the price. With ‘Kulcha’, who were dominating the spin scene in the country post that tournament, that stage might have come a tad earlier.
In the shortest format of the game, India have stuck to Jadeja, Krunal Pandya and Washington Sundar in the two series’ post the ODI World Cup. With the T20 World Cup looming next year in October in Australia, this could be a move to test new spinners. But could it just be that the ‘Kulcha’ have been “rested”?
A first glance at numbers of Indian spinners since the last T20 World Cup reveal that the two wrist spinners are indomitable.
|
Spinners tried by India in T20Is since 2016 World T20 |
||||
|
Player |
Mat |
Wickets |
Average |
Economy |
|
YS Chahal |
31 |
46 |
21.13 |
8 |
|
Kuldeep Yadav |
18 |
35 |
12.97 |
6.72 |
|
KH Pandya |
15 |
14 |
32.07 |
7.94 |
|
Washington Sundar |
11 |
12 |
20.08 |
6.17 |
|
A Mishra |
3 |
5 |
14.4 |
6 |
|
RA Jadeja |
6 |
4 |
35.25 |
8.05 |
|
AR Patel |
7 |
4 |
40.75 |
6.79 |
|
R Ashwin |
3 |
2 |
43 |
7.81 |
|
RD Chahar |
1 |
1 |
27 |
9 |
|
Parvez Rasool |
1 |
1 |
32 |
8 |
|
SK Raina |
16 |
1 |
116 |
8.92 |
|
M Markande |
1 |
0 |
- |
7.75 |
There is also a hint in here that India are experimenting because the only two spinners - aside from Chahal and Kuldeep and part-timer Suresh Raina – to play more than 10 matches are Sundar and Krunal.
So there is a possibility that India are still fishing. But a look at Kuldeep’s and Chahal’s numbers since the beginning of this year paints a different picture.
In 2019, across formats, Kuldeep averages 29.75 and Chahal 31.03. Even if that isn’t too worrying, this is a far cry from their overall career numbers which are much better. That said, the more worrying aspect is the economy. Kuldeep has gone at an economy of 5 while Chahal has gone at 6-plus.
India have been lesser in control with the two playing in tandem and even in the ODI World Cup, Jadeja was brought in after an initial trial.
The new spin trio – Jadeja, Krunal and Sundar – haven’t been striking as often, but there’s definitely more control. Their economy rates in T20Is this year are 5.5 (Jadeja), 7.81 (Krunal) and 6.54 (Sundar). In comparison to Kulcha who clock a combined economy of 8.65 this year in the shortest format of the game, these are pretty good numbers.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Noah Seelam
