How Rohit Sharma used his spinners as the trump card in Champions Trophy

Between the 28 overs of spin from Axar, Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakaravarthy between overs 6-45, New Zealand mustered three fours while hesitantly gulping down 15 overs worth of dot balls. Kuldeep Yadav, the fourth, leaked two fours and a six. However, the left-arm wrist-spinner’s consolation came gift-wrapped in the form of New Zealand’s two heavyweight bats. After Kuldeep snared Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson in successive overs between 11 and 13, the Indian advantage was established on Dubai’s Champions Trophy final strip.

The 228 deliveries off the slower bowlers were a 14-year high for India, bettering the 225 Rohit commanded from his tweakers against the same opposition in the league stage the previous week.

Shunning out all the outside noise that initially rubbished the idea of four spinners in the XI, the management had a near-perfect captain in Rohit to execute the moves on the field. Early in his interim days as skipper of the ODI side, Rohit had struck gold with a similar move in the 2018 Asia Cup in the UAE, deploying more than 30 overs thrice within a week to lift the title.

Building the spin maze

In four front-line spin proponents, Rohit and India developed an unmissable but befuddling second code to Jasprit Bumrah in the format. Banking on the strengths of Axar, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav in spotlessly cleaning up the middle-overs, India drafted the secret sauce with Chakaravarthy and tapped it in judicious quantum to destroy and leave space for more havoc.

During the first two games against Bangladesh and Pakistan where India banked on nearly as many overs of pace as spin, they witnessed two spells of sustained wicket-less phases that evolved into century partnerships. A spin overhaul with the addition of Chakaravarthy over seamer Harshit Rana meant sharper attacks in every phase in heavier matches against New Zealand (in the league stage and final) and Australia in the semifinal.

Despite conceding five fifty-plus stands in the last three games, India ensured they were nipped earlier than before with a relentless spin shuffle. Teams were rendered almost powerless against this invincibly accurate quartet that not only jotted 506 dot balls (51.47 per cent) off all deliveries (981) bowled by them but also snapped up 60 per cent (26 of 43) of wickets taken by the Indian bowlers.

While Rohit employed a recurring pattern in utilising his arsenal, neither New Zealand nor Australia could thwart the four-layered spin code that seemed so smooth in their simultaneous orbits in the last week of the tournament.

Ravindra Jadeja (R) and Axar Patel finished with identical economy (4.35) in the Champions Trophy. (AP)

Suction pumps

Left-arm finger spinners Axar and Jadeja predominantly operated within the first 40, snipping through larger spells with a focus on inducing pressure with a layer of dot balls. While Axar had straight bursts of seven and eight overs in the league-stage wins over Pakistan and New Zealand, the veteran Jadeja was in his element in the knockouts. After bowling a straight eight-over spell in the semi-final against Australia conceding only 40, Jadeja constricted the Kiwis in the final with a marathon nine overs in succession between overs 20-36, conceding only 26 for a wicket.

The Axar-Jadeja combine had a staggeringly identical effect on the defensive set-up of Rohit’s spin spread, picking up five wickets each at an economy of 4.35 in the tournament.

The death alternate

Of the few glaring errors Rohit committed on the field was Kuldeep’s Powerplay induction in the semi-final against Australia to take on Travis Head. After carrying the load of nearly bowling half his quota at the death until then, Kuldeep had to be taken off the attack after being smoked by Head for a six in the eighth over of the semifinal. Though the 30-year-old was back in his element in the final, churning out the two prized scalps, Kuldeep was largely entrusted with manning the death overs alongside Mohammed Shami in the tournament. The wily wrist-spinner sent down more deliveries than Shami, claiming four wickets at a 5.18 economy at the death.

Despite bowling the most overs (46.3) among the Indians with a pronounced share coming in the second half of the innings, Kuldeep’s 4.79 economy stood well within sight of the miserly orthodox tweakers.

Magic wheel

While a shrewd Chakaravarthy wouldn’t let go of his sorcery in the nets, Rohit wouldn’t allow the opposition to have a proper whiff of the Tamil Nadu spinner either. Save for his first five-over spell on initiation in India’s last league stage match against New Zealand, Rohit did not use the mystery man for more than three overs in any spell.

The Chakaravarthy wave still lingered in every form and phase across 50 overs. Of the four Powerplay overs he bowled in three games, Chakaravarthy made two massive inroads for India in times of trouble. After dismissing Head in the semifinal in his first over in the ninth, Chakaravarthy put the brakes on a promising New Zealand’s 57-run opening stand in the final when he removed Will Young in the eighth over. Used adeptly by Rohit in clever two-three over stints, Chakaravarthy also doubled up on Kuldeep’s effectiveness at the death to draw a perfect Bumrah parallel in the decisive games – fishing out three wickets at 4.85 rpo.

Mapping all four of them together under the captain’s nous formed India’s impregnable bowling unit for the Dubai gauntlet. It is unclear if a spin-bowling model of such offensive and defensive characters would load up India’s ODI attack again. But if it hasn’t been established already, Rohit and his spin cartel’s effective coherence could soon rub off on the T20I team’s World Cup defence next year.