In terms of experience and expertise, both are well endowed and have time and again shown match-winning capabilities, but can they be given that huge role of together spearheading the Indian attack? The team think-tank, which has been a huge proponent of flexibility, must believe they can and probe this possibility with both pragmatism and passion.
In the many years of lamenting over and yearning for pace bowlers, we have lost sight of the fact that spin has been our traditional strength and that we can still employ it as a weapon better than most. At the top level of any sport, where there is very little to choose between the teams, surprise can be a clincher. Cricket too is replete with examples of how the 'unexpected' brought the opposition to their knees.
Remember the problems off-spinner Dipak Patel posed when, out of the blue, he came on as an opening bowler during the 1992 World Cup? The effects of that 'shock' lasted long enough for New Zealand to keep employing the plan right through the tournament even as teams tried desperately to come to grips with something they hadn't budgeted for in their plans or preparations.
There is bound to be a surprise or two in this World Cup as well, and India can certainly exercise the two-spinner option as many times as the opportunity arises. While the wickets this time are expected to aid their art, the variety in the attack in the attack will not suffer. If anything, it will be enriched.
Kumble and Harbhajan are very different bowlers--and it's not just because one delivers leg-spin and the other off-spin. Kumble's is that tight relentless assault that forces the batsman to play from his post, while Bhajji is about the loop that is launched to fool him in the air. One is about the minor variations, the googly and the flipper hardly discernible when they are slipped in but deadly all the same. The other is forever chasing that extra turn, which in turn lends his 'doosra' a telling edge.In fact, considering the conditions they are expected to encounter in the Caribbean, the selectors probably missed a trick by not also including Ramesh Powar in the 15.
In a format of the game where containment is a key and dot balls are at times nothing short of telling blows, spinners have often been considered vulnerable against the batsmen looking for ready runs. Two spinners in a playing eleven is surely luxury. Or, so they will have you believe.On India's tour of the West Indies last year, two spinners had wreaked havoc.. The stranglehold Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels had on India's much-vaunted batting line-up in the crucial middle overs should have been both a pointer and a prod for teams that have a tradition of relying on spin to churn out the right results.
There must, of course, be a method in the 'madness'. The tracks and, perhaps more importantly, the form that Kumble and Bhajji carry during the Cup should decide whether India play this card. The Indian team is full of part-time spinners and there will always be the temptation to include that extra seamer or batsman at the expense of the two-spinner option but should the conditions so present themselves, the think-tank mustn't shy away and play 'safe'.
It's time to back belief.
No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go
with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started.
No comments:
Post a Comment