Left is right

Dont underestimate spins potential for crickets great surprises....

Murali Kartik for most of the past decade appeared to pose difficult questions to Indian cricket. Since his early

appearances,especially the 1999-2000 season,hed elicit cries of recognition,that India had finally in its sight someone who could revive its traditions of left-arm spin. But it would be a chequered career for the Railways bowler,he would be in and out of the national team,and theories would keep swirling why this was,not least about a bias against left-arm spin. But perhaps it was also because the past decade was colonised by Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh and it was also,

remember,a time when India would at a pinch prefer to carry an extra batsman so that the deserving reserve spinner would often sit it out. Nonetheless,there was always regret that left-arm spin was not getting the place it deserved.

So,here is that question once again,posed for the new decade: can India find ways of accommodating the profusion and aspirations of its new generation of left-arm spinners? As a survey in The Sunday Express highlighted,the domestic game has a long list of bowlers knocking on opportunitys door from 20-year-old Iqbal Abdulla Mumbai to 17-year-old Aushik Srinivas Tamil Nadu to Kartik himself. And the debate has begun once again: how soon and how often do you expose a young left-arm spinner to limited-overs cricket? Thankfully,opinion on that is not all orthodox,because given the expansion of opportunities that league formats provide,it will be the left-arm spinners challenge to prove himself on unforgiving tracks. After all,in the last decade we saw the resurgence of leg-spin because a bunch of leg-spinners showed they could conquer any format.

A few years ago,Daniel Vettori said,Left-arm spinners are a

dying breed and there are only a few of us left. May the future prove him wrong.