Captain Virat Kohli praised his wrist spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal (above) and Kuldeep Yadav. (Source: AP)
After the fifth and final ODI at the Premadasa on Sunday, the Indian team cut a cake in the dressing room. The 5-0 clean sweep had nothing to do with it. The players, coaches and support staff celebrated the birthday of the team masseur. There was hardly any team talk from Virat Kohli or Ravi Shastri. The facile nature of the contests made India’s whole approach business-like.
Sri Lanka’s on-field sterility put a dampener on the excitement as far as this series was concerned. From the visitors’ point of view, however, the five ODIs were an opportunity to experiment — assess the spin-bowling back-up line, rotate the batting order and check the fast bowling depth in the absence of Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. Boxes ticked, India will play a one-off T20 international on Wednesday before returning home.
The fifth ODI on Sunday was a rare occasion when India fielded two wrist spinners in limited-overs cricket. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal came through with flying colours, choking the opponents, giving away just 76 runs between them in 20 overs and taking two wickets.
Leg-spinner Chahal, on his return to the 50-over format after a gap of 14 months, finished the series with five wickets and bowled at an economy rate of 4.70. Chinaman bowler Yadav played two matches, had an economy rate of 3.80 and bagged three scalps. Axar Patel, once again, proved himself as Ravindra Jadeja’s like-for-like replacement, accounting for six Sri Lankan batsmen and maintaining an economy rate of 3.85.
Little wonder then that Kohli was full of praise for his spinners after Sunday’s game. “These guys were brilliant, all three of them. Axar being a conventional spinner (left-arm orthodox) as well… He varied his pace, I think it was outstanding; he didn’t let the batsmen get on top of him. That’s a remarkable thing — when you don’t have any variation in your bowling and you still don’t let guys score — I think it’s the height that really helps him getting that extra bounce and the extra pace he can generate. He has got a very strong shoulder and people find it difficult to sweep him,” the skipper said. “Kuldeep and Chahal being wrist spinners will always keep you in the game.”
In about a couple of weeks, Australia will arrive in India for a limited-overs series and it would be interesting to see if all three youngsters are retained. In a recent interview with The Indian Express, Shastri spoke about the policy of keeping R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja fresh for Test cricket. At the same time, in a marquee series on home soil, the selectors might prefer to strike a balance between youth and experience. It augurs well for the Indian team that Patel, Yadav and Chahal grabbed their opportunities here.
With the 2019 World Cup being the holy grail, a bigger pool of spinners will provide the selection committee and team management with more options. Pitches for limited-overs cricket nowadays conform to a common standard. So spin will play a vital role even in a World Cup in England as well. One of the reasons for India’s loss to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final at The Oval two-and-a-half months ago was the combined bowling meltdown of Ashwin and Jadeja — 137 runs in 18 overs without a wicket. The defeat initiated a thought process overhaul in terms of widening the spin-bowling pool.
“It’s going to be a challenge among all the bowlers and the spinners that are going to be part of the bigger group to make it to the 2019 World Cup. As I said, we don’t want to be predictable in any way and we want to have an X-factor if possible with the bowling attack as well,” Kohli said on Sunday.
Apart from the ‘big two’ — Ashwin and Jadeja — and the three spinners who have been touring Sri Lanka, the extended pool might include the likes of Krunal Pandya and Deepak Hooda. Both recently toured South Africa with India ‘A’ and that they are very capable batsmen down the order would be value addition.
Bumrah’s progress
On Monday, an ICC release said Jasprit Bumrah “has moved up 27 ranks to a career-best fourth position” in the ODI bowling rankings. A tally of 15 wickets in five matches in Sri Lanka was the Gujarat fast bowler’s return to positive vibes and accolades after the low of the Champions Trophy final.
“It’s not only about yorkers and slower balls any more. He (Bumrah) can bowl a good length ball and nick you off as well,” Kohli said about Bumrah’s progress.
After a three-match wicket drought, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, too, returned to form with his maiden ODI five-for on Sunday. And then there are Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami, rested for this series but ready for the big occasions.
Middle-order experiments
As for middle-order batting, MS Dhoni has now comfortably settled his form issue. So it’s between KL Rahul, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav for the two positions available. Both Rahul and Jadhav struggled against Akila Dananjaya’s spin in this series, although Jadhav scored a half-century in the final game. Pandey looked pretty assured during his unbeaten half-ton in the fourth ODI and also played well on Sunday before falling prey to a poor shot. Away from this 15-member squad, Shreyas Iyer is shaping up well and Suresh Raina would be back in contention once he meets the required fitness parameters.
“We spoke about experimenting with a few guys going up and down the order. We have to try a few things. If you go out to play against India, you know that there’s going to be one pattern that’s going to be followed. So people can prepare. Once we start playing like this and get more confident with the roles that we are given, we can be more unpredictable and with the kind of talent that we have in the side, if we can be unpredictable as well then it becomes a lethal combination,” the skipper said. “We will keep doing these things in the future as well.”
