da realsbet： India’s traditional strength has always been spin, and this holds goodeven for Test matches abroad
da brdice： Partab Ramchand29-May-2002India’s traditional strength has always been spin, and this holds goodeven for Test matches abroad. Take any overseas victory from the 60sto the 90s, and it will be noticed that spin has played a decisiverole. In the 60s and 70s, all Indian wins overseas came about as aresult of some splendid work by the famed spin quartet. They wereresponsible for shaping the victories in New Zealand in 1967-68, inthe West Indies and England in 1971, in New Zealand in 1976, in WestIndies later that year, and in Australia in 1977-78.
But there was no denying the fact that, overall, the Indian bowlingneeded to revolve around spin if it was to make a greater impactoverseas, and this was proved even as recently as 1993, when AnilKumble, albeit all too rarely, scripted a victory in Sri Lanka.
The advent of Kapil Dev changed the script considerably. But even whenhe was at the forefront of India’s wins, most notably at Melbourne in1981 and at Lord’s and Leeds in 1986, the contribution of the spinnerscould not be overlooked. In England, when conditions heavily favouredKapil, Roger Binny and Chetan Sharma, the Test averages were stillheaded by Maninder Singh, who struck telling blows in the two matches.And if Kapil played a courageous role in bowling India to victory atMelbourne, the role of Dilip Doshi cannot be forgotten. The left-armspinner, like Kapil, battled injury even as he picked up the vitalwickets of Graeme Wood and Kim Hughes on his way to a match haul offive to the Indian spearhead’s six.But there was no denying the fact that, overall, the Indian bowlingneeded to revolve around spin if it was to make a greater impactoverseas, and this was proved even as recently as 1993, when AnilKumble, albeit all too rarely, scripted a victory in Sri Lanka. Sevenyears later, Sunil Joshi played the leading role in the win overBangladesh at Dhaka.However, in the past year, there has been a significant change in thescenario. The last three victories abroad have been shaped by seamrather than spin. The trio of medium-pacers – Zaheer Khan, AshishNehra and Javagal Srinath – took 13 wickets, while the lone spinner,Harbhajan Singh, managed just three in the victory over Zimbabwe atBulawayo.The seamers’ dominance was almost complete a couple of months later inthe win over Sri Lanka at Kandy. Venkatesh Prasad, Zaheer Khan,Harvinder Singh and Sourav Ganguly shared 18 wickets between them,while only one wicket fell to Harbhajan. In the most recent triumph atPort of Spain, Srinath, Zaheer and Nehra had 15 wickets to show fortheir efforts, while again Harbhajan, the lone spinner, had just threescalps.The Indian spinner’s role in the past had never been so minimal. Evenwhen the side had three seam bowlers and one spinner, the latteralways made his presence felt, as can be seen by the examples ofManinder and Doshi. Admittedly, the spinners in the post-1980 period,when the quartet broke up, cannot be compared to their predecessors,especially in overseas conditions. This has become more pronounced inthe last decade or so, as illustrated by the figures of NarendraHirwani, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan, besides Kumble andHarbhajan.The palpable shift to seam cannot be missed, what with the team’sthink-tank in the West Indies fielding three seam bowlers and only onespinner in four straight Tests, starting from the victory at Port ofSpain. Conventional wisdom, on the other hand, had it, as the teamleft for the Caribbean, that Kumble and Harbhajan would be an integralpart of the bowling line-up.This shift in attack may also be seen in England, where conditions arebound to help the seamers. If any further evidence were required, onehas only to look back at the bowling averages of the last Test seriesthere between the two countries in 1996, when Srinath and Prasadformed a splendid pair of opening bowlers.However, I have a lurking feeling that it will not be long before themesmeric magic and infinite variety of Indian spin again wins matchesabroad. In the long run, because of its strong traditional strength,spin is more likely to succeed abroad rather than pace. An analogy canbe drawn with the West Indian pacemen, who have always done well evenon Indian pitches, regarded as graveyards for fast bowlers. Ifanything, past history by way of the cases I have pointed out is proofof this. Spin to win is the Indian mantra, and this holds good evenfor Test matches abroad, despite the good work done by the seamers oflate.
