Indian cricket has produced many quality bowlers by now – be it pacers or spinners. However, former player Laxman Sivaramakrishnan said that it is the hight time that India need to focus on producing quality Test spinners, especially off-break bowlers. Ravichandran Ashwin (365 wickets in 71 Tests) has been a great bowler in home conditions but he is not as effective as he should be in overseas conditions now.
Meanwhile, former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels that veteran domestic performers like Akshay Wakhare (34 years) and Jalaj Saxena (33 years) should earn the India call-up. But Laxman Sivaramakrishnan thinks that a younger pool needs to be created as Ashwin has a few years of Test cricket left in him.
“Ashwin is a very hard-working bowler and he has not taken his place for granted. He still has three good years left and it’s time now that we find the next crop of young spinners which is ready to take over when time comes,” he told PTI.
“Jalaj Saxena and Akshay Wakhare have performed year after year at the domestic level, at times on flat tracks. I have seen Akshay closely at the Mumbai Indians nets. Age for me is just a number. I don’t believe these two can’t be tried,” Singh said.
“I haven’t seen a good off-spinner at the Ranji level. That’s because of bad captaincy at the Ranji Trophy level. If an off-spinner gets hit by a right-hander, captains take him off and that hits his confidence. Harbhajan Singh became a great bowler because the captain was Sourav Ganguly, who gave him encouragement,” said Sivaramakrishnan.
“Jalaj’s is a classic case of his career completely coinciding with Ashwin’s best years. But right now we can’t look at players who are 33 or 34 years. Because by the time another three years go by, the fitness levels might be an issue.”
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However, he thinks that Karnataka’s Krishnappa Gowtham might be a good spinner but not ready to take challenges in the longer format of the game.
“He is good but I don’t think good enough for Test cricket. We need a new set of good spinners (all types) at the India A level, who should be ready in next three years. Rahul Chahar is very young but again, he is more of a white-ball bowler. Shahbaz Nadeem is 30 plus and Yuzvendra Chahal is in his late 20s,” he added
On the other hand, another former Test off-spinner Rajesh Chauhan has given a great reply on Ashwin and his delivery. In fact, former wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta felt that various state teams need to focus on the junior cricket set-up on creating a talent pool.
“Ashwin is a class bowler but with so much variations, he at times doesn’t know what is his wicket-taking delivery. About Jalaj, I don’t think he is a specialist off-spinner. He is more of an all-rounder,” Chauhan told.
“We had a phase where we wanted only wrist spinners at the highest level. So at the junior level (U-16 and U-19), boys started feeling what’s the use of being an off-spinner. But I agree with Harbhajan that Wakhare or Jalaj could be tried in future,” said Dasgupta.
