It was clear that Rohit Sharma wanted four spinners, and his mind about who would feature in his bowling attack (two allrounders, also left-arm-spinners, in Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, and two wrist spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav) was made up before the IPL.
ALSO SEE: T20 World Cup Schedule
Morning starts, where dew would not play much of a role was one of the reasons cited.
“I definitely wanted four spinners. We’ve played a lot of cricket there. We know what the conditions are like. With morning starts at 10-10.30am, there’s a little bit of technical aspect involved in this,” skipper Rohit had said in Mumbai when the team was picked.
That technical aspect could be the fact that India are expected to qualify for the super-eights and all the games from that stage will be played in the West Indies and the general belief is that the pitches there will be spin-friendly.
Former India manager and Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner Sunil Subramanian, also Indian legend R Ashwin’s coach, feels that way.
“India may have picked one spin-bowling allrounder too many. Rinku Singh for Axar and Khaleel Ahmed for vice-captain Hardik would have balanced the side better. There is no way both wrist spinners will play, especially in Nassau County in New York. It is a mickey mouse ground with the straight boundary being 55 metres only. Also, it is a drop-in pitch. Against Pakistan, they may play with only one spinner and that could be Jadeja as they may want to pack the side with pacers who can execute yorkers,” he told TOI.
Subramanian was part of the team between 2017 and 2019, where India played both Kuldeep and Chahal in most white-ball games, with success. Will we see that happening in the T20 World Cup?
“The reason both the wrist spinners featured in the playing XI was because both Jadeja and Ashwin were not able to contain the flow of runs in the middle-overs and were not able to pick wickets,” Subramanian revealed.
The ‘Kul-Cha’ combo, as it was called, was a run-away success. They played in 15 T20I games together, including four of the five matches in the West Indies in 2023 and India ended up victorious in 11 of them. In those 15 games, Kuldeep picked 29 wickets while Chahal picked 23. Will they go back to that formula?
“Only if they are in a must-win situation. If Hardik is unable to bowl four overs and if one of the pacers gets hit, that may happen. But only in the West Indies leg of the tournament. The only other way to play both wrist spinners is by dropping Jaiswal and opening with Kohli and Rohit. They will not do that. They will err on the side of caution,” Subramanian stressed.
India’s batting coach till the 2019 World Cup, who was with the team in the Kul-Cha era, and former India allrounder Sanjay Bangar, also does not see both Kuldeep and Chahal playing together.
“It will be Jadeja and Kuldeep to start with. Two wrist spinners won’t feature in the same XI,” opined Bangar.
Interestingly, he does not see India being light on pace bowling options either. “Even if we had picked an extra pacer, he might not have played. Bumrah, Siraj/Arshdeep and Hardik can go through the tournament unchanged,” he told TOI.
Former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop, a respected voice in commentary, who is armed with local knowledge of the conditions, felt India’s four-spinner theory could be a luxury while acknowledging spin will play a part in the tournament.
His assessment can be supported by the fact that in all CPLT20 matches so far, featuring 692 innings, pacers have taken 2384 wickets at a strike rate of 131.31 and an economy of 8.38. Spinners have grabbed 1565 wickets at a better strike-rate of 111.60 and a lower economy of 6.85.
“The pitches for the World Cup may be slightly different. So, I think it’s a luxury to have four spinners rather than it being a necessity,” he told official broadcasters Star Sports.
Aaron Finch, the man who led Australia to the title in the UAE in 2021 feels India may have “backed themselves into a corner.”
“I had Rinku in there and only two spinners. I had the extra quick because of the inconsistency that we have seen with everyone barring Jasprit Bumrah. And if they want to play three spinners, one of them must bowl in the powerplay. I don’t see any of those guys doing it consistently,” Finch analysed while speaking to Star Sports.
Now let’s look at the spin-bowling options of other teams expected to feature in the super-eights.
Sri Lanka have six, England and New Zealand have five, Bangladesh have four and West Indies, Australia, and South Africa three. Does India having four feel like a luxury? Time will tell.