Fresh legs

As for the 22-year-old Bailey, the Aussies have wrapped him in cotton wool and are busy nursing him at their academy, despite impressive first class outings. What makes the scenario fascinating is the fact that Warne8217;s coach Terry Jenner has played a big role in the development of Rashid and Bailey. As for Chawla, he happens to be the leggie with most international experience in this trio. Here8217;s looking at the three young googly guys who face the impossible task of following in the footsteps of the just-retired master.

TERRY Jenner, the 64-year-old leggie from Australia took just 24 Test wickets, but his claim to fame is being the coach to someone who finished with 712 Test dismissals. With Warne8217;s retirement, though, Jenner8217;s stable isn8217;t empty yet, as Adil Rashid and Cullen Bailey promise a lot. Jenner, the man who is an encyclopaedia on the art of leg-spin spoke to The Sunday Express.

Now that Shane Warne has retired, do you feel that there8217;s this sudden void that he8217;s left which will take time to fill. Do you see anyone filling his shoes or at least worthy of trying out in the coming years?
Whilst it is usually said no one is irreplaceable, Shane Warne is about as close as you get. Not only did he take 712 wickets but he also scored in excess of 3000 runs and took more than 100 catches. Great spinners come along so rarely that we can feel lucky when they appear in our lifetime. Australia will have good spinners again but there will only ever be one Shane Warne.

Are you of the view that a leg-spinner 8212; before he is launched at the international level 8212; should be given ample quality time in the domestic circuit? And if yes then why? Won8217;t it help the bowler8217;s confidence if he graduates to the international level at a young age?
If we take a line through Warne it would be pure folly to blood a young spinner before he has done his apprenticeship at First Class level. Warne was thrown in at the deep end against India and although he spun the ball along way he had not learned how to defend himself. One wicket for 230 plus in his two Tests against India was followed by none for more than a hundred in his next Test, against Sri Lanka.
That gave him a solitary wicket for more than 300 runs!! Very few, if any could recover from that situation. That he did is the reason he is a once in a generation bowler. It is most unlikely another young would recover from such a mauling.

Can you provide us a brief on how do you see the process of developing a leg spinner?
A: It is my view that limited-overs cricket has severely retarded the development of many a young spinner. To gain maximum spin, a bowler should bowl his stock delivery up to the bat, inviting the drive. This practice encourages not only spin but also curve and drop but means there is a risk of runs being scored which does not suit most captains, especially in the 8220;dot ball8221; game. With that in mind the spinner requires a lot of long spells to aid in his development.

India have always produced good spinners. But not specifically leg-spinners other than Bhagwat Chandrashekhar and Narendra Hirwani among the top ones. Is that something that8217;s got to do more with the mental approach towards the game or anything else?
Not having played in India I am not qualified to speak on the way pitches play. Having watched a lot on television I can surmise they are much slower and lower than Australian pitches.
In Warne8217;s early days of Test cricket, Australia did not tour India very often so I felt it would be dangerous for him to alter his style for one series every 5 or 6 years or more hence he did not attempt to bowl like Kumble.
Similarly, when India were last in Australia I was privileged to have a session with Kumble and my advice to him was not to try and bowl like Warne. I suggested that there was need for more over spin and spinning wrong8217;uns than the front of the hand deliveries he uses so frequently on Indian pitches
In that series he went at more than 4 runs an over but took 20 odd wickets and almost won the series for India simply by altering the sequencing of his deliveries.
The art of spin is not necessarily about containment. Most spinners are required to sacrifice spin for accuracy in the limited over game which, I believe, impedes their development.
Qadir was the first wrist spinner to make a mark in limited over cricket. Warne was probably next but he played about 20 Test matches before being exposed to the 50-over game.
That meant he played as a genuine spinner and not a dot ball bowler hence his development was not retarded. Proof of that is the fact that he played approximately 40 one day matches before he failed to take a wicket.

IF a leg-spinner starts bowling at the age of 15 and is genuinely talented for his age, how much time should he actually spend training before he starts bowling at the highest level?
A: No matter how talented a wrist spinner is at 15 years of age, he still needs to gain experience at club level before being exposed to the First Class game.
He needs to store up lots of 8220;wins8221; along the way to give him the confidence to succeed. He must learn how to defend himself against the 8220;bullies8221; and that takes time and a lot of patience from the spinner and the coach. We don8217;t want to see young talent burnt by our impatience.
He should practice his stock ball more than any other delivery which means adding the variations along the way, not at an age when he can become preoccupied with flippers, sliders etc.

INDIAN ANGLE
Piyush Chawla
ENGLAND8217;S tour of India in March 2006 was supposed to be Anil Kumble8217;s outing, the Bangalore leg-spinner8217;s reputation to trouble the visitors at home having reached a folklore status in Indian cricket. Astonishingly though, at a time when the build-up to the three-Test series was just gathering steam, the Indian media was uncharacteristically busy following the Under-19 World Cup matches in Sri Lanka.
There was certainly no doubting Chawla8217;s talent when he ended up becoming India8217;s highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Chawla first played for India Under-19 against the visiting England Colts, claiming 13 wickets in two Tests at an average of just above twelve that set him apart from the rest. A year later, he produced a delivery in the Challenger Trophy to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar, which is still vivid in the memory of those who witnessed it 8212; a googly that the master batsman couldn8217;t help but succumb to.
The big break came for Chawla soon when he was included in the Test squad to play against England in the match at Nagpur . The young spinner, although, couldn8217;t hold on to his Test spot and the opportunities waned until he was called back for the tour of Bangladesh . While most of the debate during the tour of Bangladesh has revolved around the appointment of India8217;s next coach, the brilliant show by Chawla in his debut ODI game has been sadly missed.
KK Gautam on Piyush Chawla:
Piyush Chawla was with me when he was just a nine-year-old. The way he delivered his first ball, I was really impressed because bowling off-spin is easier but leg-spin requires a lot of accuracy which he had.
Uski bowling dekh kar tabiyat khush ho gayi Felt very good when I saw him bowl and I decided he should concentrate on leg-spin too.
We used to have long sessions on bowling and initially just spot bowling, in which two stumps are kept across the good length and the bowler is asked to bowl between those stumps. With that, he got hold of his line and length. This process was carried for a month and later we concentrated on variations and that is how he learnt. I think he has a good grasping power which others lack. As he is a good batsman too, he knows where to bowl and what are the weaknesses of a batsman.
According to me, the turning point of his career was the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar during the Challenger Trophy.
So far he has been a consistent performer but I feel he should be given more chances because that will help him to gain in confidence.
Devendra Pandey

ENGLAND8216;S BIG HOPE
ADIL RASHID
AN extremely gifted Anglo-Asian who suffered a stress fracture at the age of 19, remodeled his action and was busy coping with the pressure of the over-zealous English media, is currently giving the England Cricket Board a lot to think about. Even before he thought he had started, 19-year-old Adil Rashid8217;s extraordinary exploits in the English county for Yorkshire was making heads turn.
Terry Jenner, Warne8217;s coach, once said that it always irritated him when they asked why England could never produce world class leg-spinners. 8220;I never had an answer,8221; he said and then Rashid happened. It was Jenner who first noticed Rashid as a 14-year-old though the boy himself strictly believes that it was his father who observed his abilities and nurtured it. Whatever the story but Rashid is definitely a product of Jenner8217;s spin programme that the English Cricket Board set in place to find a weapon as destructive as the Warne-MacGill pair. In his first class debut against Warwickshire, Rashid scaled six wickets and eventually ended up with 25 in a total of six championship matches.
Rashid8217;s strengths lie in bowling very good leg-breaks, with good revolutions and an immaculate line and length with a consistent effort. He also has a lot of variety, as Parson says, and is a fierce competitor, enough for him to be considered for England.
Rashid started with Yorkshire at Under-11s and from there went through all the age groups to the Under-17s, Yorkshire Second XI and now the first team. It8217;s time, England feel, he should be promoted to the next big level.

Jenner on Rashid
I have worked with Adil Rashid, the young Yorkshire legspinning all-rounder for around 5 or 6 years. He is an outstanding talent and a very confident cricketer. His wrist spin action is of the basic style 8212; very uncomplicated and one that contains good variations.
The danger with the Rashid situation is over bowling him. Already he has endured a stress fracture in his back, most probably caused by the massive number of overs he bowled for Yorkshire and England Under 19 last summer. He is not of a strong built so managing his overs is what I believe is vital for his longevity as a spinner. 8212;ENS