The National selectors have cast their net wide to find good bowlers who can make the international grade in the coming years. They have picked a pack of seamers in Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Nathu Singh, and Krishna Das, besides spinners Akshay Wakhare, Shahbaz Nadeem and Jayant Yadav in the Rest of India team for the Zal Irani Cup match against Ranji Trophy winner Mumbai to be played at the Brabourne Stadium from March 6. They have also selected experienced all-rounder Stuart Binny.
According to the International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Programme (2014-2019), India is scheduled to play a one-off Test in Zimbabwe in June, four Tests in the West Indies in July-August, host a one-off Test against Bangladesh in August, three Test matches against New Zealand in October and five Test matches against England in November-December. The long home international season will spill over to February-March 2017, when India will play four Tests against Australia.
The likes of Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and more recently R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra, will keep reminding that spin has played its part in big home victories in the last 10 years, barring the 2012-13 season when India lost to Alastair Cook-led England 2-1, thanks to a spectacular showing by off-spinner Graeme Swann and left-arm spinner Monty Panesar.
But going by the outcome of last year’s 3-0 win against South Africa, it will be a foregone conclusion to surmise that spin will again dominate the 13 home Tests and, perhaps, also the four away Tests against Zimbabwe and the West Indies.
Time and again, during the course of the series against South Africa, India’s captain Virat Kohli, off-spinner Ashwin and team director Ravi Shastri argued in favour of creating designer tracks that would offer purchase to Ashwin, Jadeja and Mishra. This line of thought will impose itself again in the second half of the year, but clearly the selectors feel that there is a necessity to look beyond the established group and pick recognised bowlers who have bagged wickets aplenty in the recently-concluded Ranji Trophy.
While left-arm seamer Unadkat is an experienced campaigner who spearheaded Saurashtra’s pace department, others like Punjab’s Sran, Rajasthan’s Nathu and Assam’s Das were virtually unknown before the start of the 2015-16 season. So, eyes popped up when the name of Nathu Singh figured in the BCCI President’s XI team for the two-day warm-up match against South Africa at the Brabourne Stadium. He looked raw, seemed over-anxious to impress, bowled 14.4 overs, gave away 56 runs and dismissed Dean Elgar. It was a genuine wicket though. After the match, wicketkeeper Naman Ojha said Nathu was quick. Thereafter, he played six Ranji Trophy matches for Rajasthan and took 12 wickets at 40.08, with seven in the first match against Delhi, his scalps including Unmukt Chand and Gautam Gambhir.
No reputation for Sran
One never really knows why left-arm seamer Sran was selected for the one-day series in Australia. He had no reputation as an intimidating fast bowler; all he had to show was 14 wickets in the 2011-12 season. After failing to play the next three seasons, he picked up 25 wickets in the current campaign.
In Australia, Sran took 3/56 in 9.2 overs at Perth, returned 0/51 in nine overs at Brisbane and 0/63 in eight overs at Melbourne. At the end of the tour, Dhoni was reported as saying: “The find of the tour for me is Bumrah (Jasprit).”
Assam medium-pacer Krishna Das has been picked on sheer merit. He has taken 50 wickets this season and is only behind left-arm spinner, Nadeem, who leads the Ranji Trophy bowling honours with 51. It is unlikely though that Das will figure in the playing XI because Binny, Unadkat, Sran and Nathu have played higher class of cricket.
In the spin department, Nadeem has a wealth of experience with 246 wickets in first class cricket. Moreover, he has 87 wickets in limited-over matches and 68 in T20s. Perhaps, he has to do a lot more to convince the selectors that he’s better than Delhi left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, who was first picked in the Indian team for the T20 series against Sri Lanka, and then retained for the Asia Cup and ICC World T20.
At a time when every off-break bowler seems to be bowling with a suspect action, Vidarbha’s Akshay Wakhare has turned out to be surprise package — his 49 wickets at 29.63 won him a place in the squad with Haryana’s Jayant Yadav (19 wickets this season and 102 in 39 first class matches), who is also acknowledged as a batsman.
So, these bowlers seem to be the best talent India has to offer, and a good display in the Irani Cup would give them the big break once the country is through with the IPL extravaganza.
A good display in the Irani Cup would give them the big break after the IPL
Selectors feel there is necessity to look beyond the established group and pick bowlers who have bagged wickets in Ranji Trophy
