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The enthralling Test series between India and Australia held in March represented a watershed moment for the Indian cricket team. Upon defeating Australia in the final Test in Dharamshala, it became the third country (after Australia and South Africa) to hold all bilateral trophies in Test cricket (concerning its own team, of course) at the same point of time. From Steven Smith’s quip of being one or two sessions away from the Australian team retaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy, after the Pune reverse, to winning the series at Dharamshala, this was a stunning reaction from the Virat Kohli–led team.
Of course, India having played most of its recent Tests at home has contributed in some part to this achievement; greater challenges lie abroad. The bedrock of this match-winning juggernaut has been built on the foundation of a well-oiled bowling unit . Leading from the front are India’s two match-winning spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. Ranked 1 and 3 (Ashwin was ranked at 2 when the series concluded) on the ICC player rankings, they have been at the forefront of dismantling opposition teams at home — emulating the illustrious Bishan Singh Bedi and Bhagwath Chandrashekhar, who occupied the top two slots way back in 1974 . Ashwin even managed to breach the elite 900 ranking points level, hitherto unscaled by Indian bowlers.
Who should be the primary spinner when India tours? What would be done with Kuldeep Yadav, another interesting prospect?
However, the two spinners took contrasting paths during the extended home season. Ashwin took off from where he left, becoming the third player (after Malcolm Marshall and Imran Khan, no less) to snare four consecutive Man-of-the-series awards with his showing against the New Zealand team. However, he ran into a wall (relatively speaking) in the form of the English team. He wasn't able to run amok against Bangladesh or Australia either; his batting form tailed off as well.
Of course, injury might have played some part in his less-than-stellar showing; during the home season, Ashwin bowled over 700 overs and picked up 82 wickets (a record). He was first picked for the Ranji trophy quarterfinal match against Karnataka, and subsequently withdrew to recuperate from a sports hernia. The same injury reared its ugly head after the India-Australia series, and the bowler rightly gave the IPL a skip .
On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja went from strength to strength as the home season progressed. He maintained a high level for the first three series, and was the standout performer in the Border-Gavaskar trophy, supplanting his teammate Ashwin at the top of the ICC rankings. He too missed the initial matches of the IPL, but his improved Test match prowess hasn't exactly boosted his IPL showings. Both of these bowlers were ineffectual during the Champions trophy.
Ravichandran Ashwin
| Versus team | No of Tests | Wickets | Bowling Average |
| New Zealand | 3 | 27 | 17.77 |
| England | 5 | 28 | 30.25 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 6 | 28.50 |
| Australia | 4 | 21 | 27.38 |
Ravindra Jadeja
| Versus team | No of Tests | Wickets | Bowling Average |
| New Zealand | 3 | 14 | 24.07 |
| England | 5 | 26 | 25.84 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 6 | 24.66 |
| Australia | 4 | 25 | 18.56 |
This raises an interesting conundrum as India tours Sri Lanka in July-August and South Africa in December-January: what should India’s bowling combination be when it tours different countries?
When India last toured many overseas countries in 2014, Ashwin had been left out of the eleven seven times in nine Test matches. He was dropped after he bowled 42 overs at the Wanderers with nothing to show in the wickets column. The man who replaced him in the next test was Ravindra Jadeja — who toiled for 58.2 overs in the first innings, but got 6 wickets. Even the unheralded Karn Sharma leapfrogged him in Adelaide.
Ashwin didn't impress when he got the chance in England or Australia either. After a period of introspection , he turned a corner and has been a different bowler since. But the question remains — who will be the primary spinner when India tours? What would be done with Kuldeep Yadav, another interesting prospect?
Fortunately, there exists a period in India’s recent cricketing past when the team faced a similar conundrum — the spinners being the previous Indian coach Anil Kumble, and the man whom Ashwin replaced, Harbhajan Singh.
Between Harbhajan Singh’s debut Test (March 25, 1998) and Anil Kumble’s final Test (November 2, 2008), India played toured many a country abroad. In 20 of these matches , both Kumble and Harbhajan featured. Sometimes, one player was favoured over the other — Kumble made the cut 26 times , whereas Harbhajan was picked 12 times . Is there any evidence that playing one or two spinners led to the other bowling better?
| Alone | Together | |
| Kumble | 34.35 | 35.38 |
| Harbhajan Singh | 38.60 | 40.27 |
The effect, if any, is quite marginal. In fact, the statistics show that both spinners bowled marginally better alone (overall bowling figures are woeful, nonetheless). The choice of bowling combination is revealing in terms of the opposition strength; they featured in tandem mostly for Tests against “weaker” nations like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and West Indies, and against stronger opposition at well-known spin friendly venues like Galle, The Oval, Sydney and the like.
Keeping this in mind, it should be interesting to see the Indian team’s approach when it lines up against teams abroad in the coming period, and how this combination will vary with the venue. Would it pick one over the other? Will the team management play both in a five-bowler combination, and hope for the lower order to click? Will Ashwin and Jadeja continue to be the go-to frontline spinners? Will there be a third spinner in this equation on overseas rank turners? Here is the flexible approach that Anil Kumble had advocated before his time as the Indian coach:
“We have gone into this theory of three seamers and one spinner the moment we sit on an aircraft which travels more than seven hours — that's the mindset… [But] if your 20 wickets are going to come with two spinners and two fast bowlers, so be it. If it comes with three spinners and one fast bowler, so be it."
