India have produced many quality spinners throughout the years and Ravichandran Ashwin is one of them. Ashwin has played a key role since long across the formats but he has a fading impact in overseas conditions quite some times now. With 365 wickets in 71 Test matches, Ashwin has been India’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. He is the go-to bowler in home conditions but his form in overseas raise questions.
“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,” Sivaramakrishnan was quoted by 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,” the experienced Harbhajan Singh said.
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Sivaramakrishnan shared why there are no quality spinners we are not seeing in domestic level who is ready for the challenge.
“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,” he said.
He further added, “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.”
“He is good but I don’t think good enough for Test cricket,” was Siva’s honest assessment. “We need a new set of good spinners (all types) at the India A level, who should be ready in the 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 said about Karnataka’s Krishnappa Gowtham.
