Former Pakistan leg-spinner, Mushtaq Ahmed reasons the failure of world-class Test bowlers into the shorter formats of the game. Mushtaq feels “lack of variations” on the flat pitches have stopped spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Nathan Lyon to succeed in white-ball formats.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Nathan, Lyon, and Yasir Shah all have struggled to find slots in ODIs and T20Is for their respective national teams. Speaking in an exclusive interview with PTI, the former Pakistani great said, “Look at Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. They have won so many games for India in the last two years. Maybe the likes of Lyon, Ashwin, and Yasir don’t have enough variations to survive in one-day cricket.”
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Mushtaq feels the categorization of Test and limited-overs spinners is the need of the hour. He said, “Test cricket remains the ultimate challenge for the spinners as you get to know their true skills. The likes of Yasir Shah, Nathan Lyon, Moeen Ali, Ashwin. These are the guys I admire. Their contribution to Test cricket has been huge.”
He added, “Some of them have been successful in one day cricket also but the game has changed drastically since the five fielder rule inside the circle came into being. For that, mystery spinners, as well as wrist spinners, have become more effective. Guys like Adil Rashid, Adam Zampa, Yuvzendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Shadab Khan.”
Mushtaq commented on the value of wrist spinners and what they bring into white-ball cricket against power-hitting batsmen. he explains why mystery spinners are more valuable than the conventional ones in ODI’s and T20I’s.
He says, “In one -day cricket if the pitches are good and you don’t have variations or a mystery ball, you can’t survive. You need to have someone who can bowl leg-breaks, googlies, flippers, someone with a different (unorthodox) action. There is so much power hitting in the game, you need spinners with variations. ”
The 49-year old added, “In ODIs, you can still play one good conventional spinner but in T20s you need mystery spinners as he can get a wicket even with a bad ball as the batsman doesn’t have the time to read him.”
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Ahmed also explains why he believes every team should have a pool with a set of spinners for Tests and limited-overs cricket. He concluded with, “Also, the amount of cricket being played, you need to have different spinners for different formats. You zero in on five-six spinners and use them in different formats. That way their career is prolonged also.”
