A return to spin must to win

There is little doubt that Indian cricket has thrown up the most fascinating variety of spin bowlers in the history of the game. Spin in fact has been Indian cricket's traditional strength, much as pace has been the potent force for the West Indies. The greatest moments in Indian cricket have, more often than not, been the result of some splendid work by the spinners. Take any famous victory - from Madras 1952 to Kanpur 1959, from the Oval 1971 to New Delhi, 1999 - and it will be found that they were shaped by spin bowlers.

It took some time for Indian spin bowlers to assert themselves for in the formative years, the leading wicket-takers were Md Nissar and Amar Singh. Bowlers like RJ Jamshedji and CS Nayudu were in the shadow of the great opening pair in the thirties. It was not till Vinoo Mankad made his Test debut in 1946 that spin bowlers came into their own. The left arm spinner had already displayed his talent and skill against Lord Tennyson's team in 1937-38 but it was his bowling in England in 1946 that marked him out as the best of his type in the world.

Mankad was joined in the late forties by Ghulam Ahmed and in the early fifties, Subash Gupte burst upon the scene to complete India's first famous spin trio. Throughout the fifties, the three played their part heroically, laying the foundation for the few victories notched up by India in the period. Mankad, helped by Ghulam Ahmed, brought about the first ever Indian victory over England at Madras in 1952. Mankad, with 13 wickets bowled India to an innings victory over Pakistan at New Delhi later that year. Gupte, who at his peak was the best leg spin bowler in the world, played a notable part in India winning the series against New Zealand in 1955-56. Gupte had his moments of greatness against West Indies in 1953 and 1958-59, Ghulam Ahmed troubled the Englishmen in 1952 and the Australians in 1956 while Mankad remained the main prop of the attack throughout the decade. Even that most notable of triumphs till then - Kanpur 1959 - was shaped by the off spinners of Jasu Patel.

By the end of the fifties, Ghulam Ahmed and Mankad had played their last Tests and with Gupte having lost much of his magic, the alarm bells rang loud and clear. The advent of Chandu Borde, Salim Durrani and Bapu Nadkarni however saw to it that the spin bowling cupboard was not exactly bare. Durrani was for a few years the leading spin bowler in the country, capable of taking ten wickets in a match against England and along with Borde, shaping a historic rubber triumph against that country in 1961-62. Nadkarni, who was accuracy personified, was an essential part of the attack especially against the quick footed Australians and West Indians.

Even as Borde gave up bowling in the mid sixties following a shoulder injury and Durrani and Nadkarni lost their effectiveness at about the same time, the spin quartet was formed, almost by magic. One by one, Prasanna, then Chandrasekhar, then Venkatraghavan and finally Bedi came on the scene and by 1966-67, Indian slow bowling had emerged as a potent force in international cricket. All of them were still in their early or mid twenties and so the portents were encouraging. However, what followed was beyond the wildest dreams of the most optimistic Indian cricket follower. For the next decade and more, the four bowlers dominated the attack like never before in the history of Test cricket. In the process, they unwittingly reduced the opening attack to a farce, with the wicket taking dependence almost totally on the quartet. Their unprecedented success also meant that bowlers like Rajinder Goel, Padmakar Shivalkar and Dilip Doshi had to wait in the wings.

From the mid sixties to the late seventies, the spin quartet were among the most respected bowlers in the world and almost as feared as the West Indian pacemen or the Australian duo of Lillee and Thomson. As Ian Chappell put it aptly, he felt his brain was being taxed as he had to think his way out of maelstrom of trouble the spinners had him in. The four together took a total of 853 wickets and by the time they broke up, they had taken their place amongst the greatest spin bowling combinations in Test history.

Prasanna played his last Test in Pakistan in 1978-79, Bedi and Chandrasekhar wound up their careers in England in 1979. Venkatraghavan's career too seemed to have ended during the home season of 1979-80 but he came back to play seven Tests in 1983. Finding replacements for four great bowlers wasn't going to be easy. Goel and Shivalkar had virtually quit the game but the patient Doshi was rewarded. He carried on the spin tradition successfully but by this time Kapil Dev was the fulcrum of the attack and after a long time spin had to take a back seat. Bowlers like Shivlal Yadav, Ravi Shastri, L Sivaramakrishnan, Maninder Singh however saw to it that spin still had a major role to perform and they all played their part in shaping some of the Indian victories of the decade.

By the start of the 90s however Yadav, Sivaramakrishnan and Maninder all had seen better days while Shastri at best was only a steady bowler. Narendra Hirwani had burst upon the scene with a remarkable debut against West Indies at Madras in 1987-88 but at the start of the new decade, he found taking wickets a harder exercise. Anil Kumble however came on the scene in 1990 and almost immediately made his presence felt. By 1992-93, he, Venkatpathi Raju and Rajesh Chauhan were bowling India to a clean sweep victory in the three match Test series against England and they were hailed as the new spin trio. But soon doubts were raised over Chauhan's action and this reduced his wicket taking skills. Raju and Hirwani alternated as the second spinner with Kumble, by now firmly established as the kingpin of the attack.

By 1997 however, both Raju and Hirwani were discarded and since then the spin attack has revolved only around Kumble. The balance has been maintained with Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad providing some early breakthroughs or quick wrapping up of the tail with their seam bowling. But as I said, Indian cricket's traditional strength has always been spin and the folly of playing only one specialist spin bowler or a second spin bowler who is a weak prong could only lead to disastrous results. I am convinced that the recent woeful record of India in Tests is because of under dependance on the slower mode of attack. In the last couple of years, bowlers like Sunil Joshi, Nilesh Kulkarni, Nikhil Chopra, Vijay Bharadwaj, Murali Karthik and Harbhajan Singh have achieved little. At times, the situation has become so desperate that Sachin Tendulkar has been used as the second spinner. At other times there has been this foolhardy approach of playing only one specialist spinner in Kumble. This outlook must change and spin has to be the kingpin of the attack for Indian cricket to return to its winning ways.