Spinners: an endangered species in ODIs

Pick any One-Day match from the Sharjah era of cricket— India playing Pakistan or Sri Lanka in a floodlit quest for Asian supremacy. Our pre-Zaheer ‘fast’ bowlers Prabhakar and Srinath being treated with disdain by the Jayasuriya-Kaluwitharana pair or by just one Saeed Anwar. As the run rate flies over eight an over, skipper Azhar pulls a surprise, throws the ball to Anil Kumble. One of the batsmen, initially tentative, can’t resist coming down the track to heave, but the next moment we hear Nayan Mongia’s cries of joy. A quicker delivery, dipping at an angle decoded only years later by Hawk-eye, has pitched at middle-off, bit the turf only slightly, but turned enough to stump the batsman who now flinches skywards, eyes shut. It was an era when quality spin, a freely found commodity, could fox the wiliest of batsmen, terms such as ‘flipper’ and ‘arm ball’ weren’t exotic in the commentary box and even off-break bowlers, especially a certain Saqlain Mushtaq, commanded respect. [caption id=“attachment_102038” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Harbhajan Singh against West Indies in 2011 in this file photo. AFP”]  [/caption] Cut to 2011: England are preparing for a five One-Day International (ODI) series in India. Kumble has retired, and the only other spinner to have been a match-winner in the past decade, Harbhajan Singh, has been dropped for doing little to curb the severe whiplashing his side recently received from the Poms. India’s spin department is in charge of Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, a debutant (Rahul Sharma) and a part-timer (Suresh Raina), all of whom, put together, have played less ODIs than Singh (229). Now, the final nail: the latest changes in ODI rules by the ICC coming into effect next week make it mandatory to use new balls from both ends, minimising the possibility of either of them wearing out for a spinner to get a grip on them. Also, ‘powerplays’, two five-over slots of field restrictions are now to be taken only between overs 16-40, the period when most spinners operate. And wait, must we add that Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, the top two wicket-takers of cricket, have retired too? The defence that spin bowling is still alive may now rest, or at least drop their case for the shorter versions of the game. ICC, the governing body, shouldn’t entirely take the blame though, for its new rules could be reflective of the misfortune the tweakers have brought upon themselves of late. As totals have loomed large, run chases of near-300 become ordinary and the double century individual score has been achieved, the spinners, rather than reinventing their arsenals, have instead flattened their trajectories to avoid getting hit. An odd Graeme Swann or Amit Mishra tossing more flighted deliveries than your average spinner is termed as having a ‘big heart’ (perhaps the only context where Shahid Afridi’s infamous comment makes sense). With ‘containing the batsmen’ being accepted as a good job as opposed to getting them out, statistics make an ugly picture. If we reckon a four-wicket haul as a mark of a match-winning spinner, there aren’t too many around. For Sri Lanka, there have only been 18 instances in the last five years when a spinner has taken four or more wickets, and now they’re without Jayasuriya’s clever orthodox services too. Pakistan’s figure here is eight, but that’s the least of their concerns given what their cricket has gone through in the said period. India have had 10 such matches despite the number of One-Dayers they’ve played (155), the last such occurrence thanks to Amit Mishra in West Indies this year. The figures for five-fors are worse, and those of spinners outside the sub-continent are not even worth mentioning. This is certainly depressing news for those who believe that a perfectly pitched doosra claiming a set batsman’s wicket is one of the most beautiful sights of ODI cricket. Not too long ago, spinners were the crucial eyeball-catchers, whether Murali with his theatrics or Paul Adams and his chinamans or simply Kumble fuming at misfields off his bowling. Now, this crowd-puller spin league (led by Warne) only entertains us in YouTube videos. And by entertainment we refer to that from behind the stumps as well. The spinner-wicketkeeper duos of Saqlain-Moin Khan or Healy-Warne (later Gilchrist-Warne) or our own Mongia-Kumble had been cricket’s most underrated ‘partnerships’. Our drawing rooms were long graced with banter such as Moin’s ‘C’mon Saki bhai!’ or Mongia’s signature ‘Aai ga’ (besides various other pleasurable vulgarities) but now, though the stump mikes have become sharper, the helmet-wearing ’keepers hardly let out politically incorrect banter. Why, they get no time to establish a long enough chemistry with a spinner to team up and outwit the batsman. It might be unfair to blame the spinners for not having improvised their craft as T20, the game’s popular cousin checked in, as it has no place for patient tactics. But when the batsmen (with Dilscoops and switch-hits) and fielders have brought in edgy, new skills to the format, the tweakers don’t seem to have made any news. Surely there could be ways, dear spinners, to prevent someone with a 300-plus strike rate from lofting you for a six or plotting an uppish drive to cover. High time you create your improve textbook for survival reasons. (Researching for a particular Dipak Patel from New Zealand might help). The honour of this tarnished department now lies with just a handful talented cricketers. It won’t be long before Harbhajan, already in the top-10 test bowlers of all time, nurses his wounds and gets going. Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis, with his carrom balls, has enough mystery and spunk to be half as successful as Murali while Graeme Swann has led the charge of a new-look England, scoring high at entertainment too. Not to forget, the criminally unsung Daniel Vettori and the kamikaze-sque Shahid Afridi (only with his mouth shut), both of whom have captained far-from-perfect teams. The younger guns such as Mishra, Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal and Windies’ Devendra Bishoo carry the burden of making spin bowling look meaningful while not letting their seat in their squad slip away. Thankfully, there aren’t unemployment concerns for spinners in ODIs, as any XI would need their services to bowl 50 overs within the stipulated time. But with the ever-evolving game, it’s only a matter of time before a new set of ICC rules makes spinners even more redundant. With that, the heavenly sight of a leg-spinner getting a rampaging batsman stumped might vanish and nobody would even notice.