Captains seem to be preferring spinners to pacers in Twenty20, a strategy perfected by India’s MS Dhoni.s
It’s a rare sight. Can be a quiz master’s delight too.
One has to really rack his brains to find out the last time when India had three spinners in the final XI of a limited overs game?
India’s World Twenty20 match against South Africa on Sunday had not two or three but four spinners — Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, besides two specialists Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla.
On Sunday, skipper MS Dhoni included Chawla in place of experienced Zaheer for the crunch match and it had a telling effect on the outcome of the game.
The spin quartet bowled 15 of the 20 overs. Seamer Praveen Kumar, who gave away only three runs in his first over, was never asked to bowl again. So much for the strategy of Dhoni, who seems to be increasingly relying on the spinners more than the pacers.
Against Afghanistan too, India used four spinners in Harbhajan, Yusuf, Jadeja and Yuvraj Singh. They had bowled 10 of the 20 overs.
Dhoni also did not hide his preference for the spinners. “We just played two seamers. Praveen …I just made him bowl one over. I am quite happy with the spinners. The wicket is slightly on the slower side and the spinners did the job,” Dhoni said at the post match briefing on Sunday.
From the land of spinners
Not only India, other teams — particularly the ones from the sub continent — are employing a similar strategy. Pakistan went in with three spinners in their two games — Mohammed Hafeez and Saeed Ajmal besides Afridi himself.
Sangakkara made sure that he had enough of slow stuff in his arsenal. Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Sanath Jayasuriya were there for the first match against New Zealand. Young off-spinning all-rounder Suraj Randiv, meanwhile, replaced an injured Muralitharan for the Monday’s match against Zimbabwe.
Australia too are not far behind. They have plenty of spinning options in Michael Clarke and David Hussey besides in Steven Smith. Nathan Hauritz is also waiting in the wings. The slow
nature of the wickets in the West Indies seems to be forcing the captains to fall back on the spinners rather than the trusted and tested pacers.
Opening strategy
Opening with a slow bowler may have been an old tactic in the One-dayers but the trend seems to have gained currency in Twenty20. The effectiveness of the strategy was proved during the just-concluded Indian Premier League III.
Shane Warne, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Dhoni himself had frequently resorted to the strategy of opening with spinners. Taking a cue from that, the captains at the World Twenty20 are following a similar strategy. It seems to be working. So far.
Nathan McCullum (New Zealand), Abdur Razzak (Bangladesh), Harbhajan (India), Hafeez (Pakistan), Ray Price (Zimbabwe) have opened the bowling for their teams.
It is still early days in the West Indies. One never knows, if 20
overs would be bowled by the spinners at some stage.
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