Former Indian leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is of the fresh opinion. He stated Team India head coach Ravi Shastri had implied the strategy which proved to be helpful for Men in Blue.
Siva was the man who gave the Test cap to Kuldeep Yadav in the Dharamsala Test against Australia. He was talking to Times of India at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi.
“I told Kuldeep while giving him the Test cap that I played four years of international cricket, but I want you to play for fourteen years. I also believe that Chahal would be ready for Test at some point of time. Our spin department looks well-sorted as of now,” Siva told ToI.
Siva further observed the wrist spinners have a lot on offer than finger spinners who are supposed to bowl quickly and could be taken on easily.
He added the natural turners could stop the run flow. He also supported the idea of showing faith in aggressive spinners.
“These wrist spinners, who are natural turners of the ball, don’t provide the pace to the batsmen, whereas the fingers spinners start bowling fast after being hit,” Siva asserted.
Cricketer-turned-commentator Siva while considering the 2019 World Cup believes the approach from India management could prove handy in the ICC’s coveted event. The ten-team competition is slated to be held in England and Wales.
“Finger spinners are the ones who restrict the flow of runs. They don’t get a bounce and turn like wrist spinners. I completely back the idea of having Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the playing XI,” Siva said.
It could be further justified by the number of wickets Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have shared in the six-match ODI series. Both went on to claim 33 scalps to help India with the scoreline of 5-1.
The 52-year old Chennai-based Siva feels it would be hard for the ace spinning duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to return to the limited-overs fold. He made this bold claim after the success of young spinners in the recently culminated bilateral series in South Africa.
“Both Ashwin and Jadeja will find it very tough to play in the shorter versions. They didn’t take wickets the way the team management expected. The rival batsmen were playing shots whenever they came on to bowl. They bowled faster after being hit,” Siva maintained.
What actually was the tactic of former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar in the World Championship 1985 which saw Ravi Shastri introducing it on the Proteas soil?
“Before my first ODI game in the 1985 tournament, our captain Sunil Gavaskar took Shastri and me out for lunch and told us to get at least five wickets in our 20 overs,” Siva reminisced.
Well, to be precise, it was the ploy to use wrist spinners in the form of Sivaramakrishnan and Shastri himself.
“Gavaskar even told me that he would not mind if I conceded more than 50 runs from the 10 overs. He wanted me to get two or three wickets in the middle overs. Ravi is using the same tactics as a coach now,” Siva concluded.
Siva expressed India is in good stead and eventually has a lot to prove in the upcoming tours.
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