Indians caught in a spin web

To play or not to play two spinners is the question bugging the Indian team as it struggles to strike the right combination for the first Te...

To play or not to play two spinners is the question bugging the Indian team as it struggles to strike the right combination for the first Test against England starting at Lord8217;s on Thursday.

Leg-spinner Anil Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh are both proven match-winners but if India8217;s recent policy is any indication, only one of them could play in the Lord8217;s Test.

With foreign pitches not very conducive to their style of bowling, and the seam bowlers doing reasonably well, Kumble and Harbhajan had to compete against each other in the Test series in West Indies 8212; a trend which has continued on this tour with the two of them featuring together in just two of the seven matches of the just concluded tri-nation One-day series.

Skipper Sourav Ganguly conceded it was tough choice to make between the two spinners but indicated it was something the Indian team would have to live with in away series.

8220;Both are world class spinners. It comes down to who is bowling well and is in better form,8221; Ganguly said.

On conventional wisdom, it would be a luxury to go into the first Test with both Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Traditionially, Indian spinners have not done too well in England even while touring in the second half of the summer when the pitches are drier and the sun is hot.

When the Indians last came here in 1996, Kumble had taken five wickets and Venkatapathy Raju just one in a three-match Test series.

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In 1990, again for a three-Test series, Kumble bagged just three wickets but leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani scalped nine albeit at a high average of 65.11. Ravi Shastri claimed only two wickets at an average of 170.50.

In living memory, only the spinners on the 1971 tour had done well. S Venkatraghavan and BS Chandrashekhar picked 13 wickets each while Bishan Singh Bedi claimed 11 victims.

Harbhajan Singh is yet to play in a Test in England while Kumble has taken eight wickets at an unacceptable average of 63.00. Interestingly, the English players feel its a good idea to play both the spinners in the Lord8217;s Test.PTI