Spin to win no longer the overseas mantra?

India's traditional strength has always been spin, and this holds good even for Test matches abroad. Take any overseas victory from the 60s to the 90s, and it will be noticed that spin has played a decisive role. In the 60s and 70s, all Indian wins overseas came about as a result of some splendid work by the famed spin quartet. They were responsible for shaping the victories in New Zealand in 1967-68, in the West Indies and England in 1971, in New Zealand in 1976, in West Indies later that year, and in Australia in 1977-78.

But there was no denying the fact that, overall, the Indian bowling needed to revolve around spin if it was to make a greater impact overseas, and this was proved even as recently as 1993, when Anil Kumble, albeit all too rarely, scripted a victory in Sri Lanka.

The advent of Kapil Dev changed the script considerably. But even when he was at the forefront of India's wins, most notably at Melbourne in 1981 and at Lord's and Leeds in 1986, the contribution of the spinners could not be overlooked. In England, when conditions heavily favoured Kapil, Roger Binny and Chetan Sharma, the Test averages were still headed by Maninder Singh, who struck telling blows in the two matches.

And if Kapil played a courageous role in bowling India to victory at Melbourne, the role of Dilip Doshi cannot be forgotten. The left-arm spinner, like Kapil, battled injury even as he picked up the vital wickets of Graeme Wood and Kim Hughes on his way to a match haul of five to the Indian spearhead's six.

But there was no denying the fact that, overall, the Indian bowling needed to revolve around spin if it was to make a greater impact overseas, and this was proved even as recently as 1993, when Anil Kumble, albeit all too rarely, scripted a victory in Sri Lanka. Seven years later, Sunil Joshi played the leading role in the win over Bangladesh at Dhaka.

However, in the past year, there has been a significant change in the scenario. The last three victories abroad have been shaped by seam rather than spin. The trio of medium-pacers - Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Javagal Srinath - took 13 wickets, while the lone spinner, Harbhajan Singh, managed just three in the victory over Zimbabwe at Bulawayo.

The seamers' dominance was almost complete a couple of months later in the win over Sri Lanka at Kandy. Venkatesh Prasad, Zaheer Khan, Harvinder Singh and Sourav Ganguly shared 18 wickets between them, while only one wicket fell to Harbhajan. In the most recent triumph at Port of Spain, Srinath, Zaheer and Nehra had 15 wickets to show for their efforts, while again Harbhajan, the lone spinner, had just three scalps.

The Indian spinner's role in the past had never been so minimal. Even when the side had three seam bowlers and one spinner, the latter always made his presence felt, as can be seen by the examples of Maninder and Doshi. Admittedly, the spinners in the post-1980 period, when the quartet broke up, cannot be compared to their predecessors, especially in overseas conditions. This has become more pronounced in the last decade or so, as illustrated by the figures of Narendra Hirwani, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan, besides Kumble and Harbhajan.

The palpable shift to seam cannot be missed, what with the team's think-tank in the West Indies fielding three seam bowlers and only one spinner in four straight Tests, starting from the victory at Port of Spain. Conventional wisdom, on the other hand, had it, as the team left for the Caribbean, that Kumble and Harbhajan would be an integral part of the bowling line-up.

This shift in attack may also be seen in England, where conditions are bound to help the seamers. If any further evidence were required, one has only to look back at the bowling averages of the last Test series there between the two countries in 1996, when Srinath and Prasad formed a splendid pair of opening bowlers.

However, I have a lurking feeling that it will not be long before the mesmeric magic and infinite variety of Indian spin again wins matches abroad. In the long run, because of its strong traditional strength, spin is more likely to succeed abroad rather than pace. An analogy can be drawn with the West Indian pacemen, who have always done well even on Indian pitches, regarded as graveyards for fast bowlers. If anything, past history by way of the cases I have pointed out is proof of this. Spin to win is the Indian mantra, and this holds good even for Test matches abroad, despite the good work done by the seamers of late.