Australia tri-series: Is India leaning towards left?

As it turns out, India lose the match within the next two overs. But as the teams walk off, Dhoni has an arm around his young left-arm spinner. Then a pat on the back. Minutes later, he is talking about grooming Patel as a death bowler. He’s calling him a like-for-like replacement for the injured Ravindra Jadeja. Then he talks about missing Jadeja. “We are a lot more comfortable when he’s in the team,” he says. Dhoni repeats his longing for the Saurashtra all-rounder two days later in Brisbane as the world champions are beaten again.

Patel’s last two overs in the MCG ODI in many ways exemplified both of Dhoni’s claims. Why he thinks the boy from Gujarat is just another avatar of his state-mate, and also why the Indian captain is ‘comfortable’ when he has Jadeja by his side. And why, like he added in Brisbane, he might consider going with both in tandem. “I can push the batsmen to hit towards one side of the wicket. With big boundaries I can really exploit that to some extent,” he had explained in Melbourne about handing Patel the ball at a crucial juncture of the game.

Jadeja went through the rigours of an entire training session for the first time in over a month at the SCG nets on Friday. He bowled for close to 45 minutes and then had a lengthy batting stint. Dhoni looked relieved, more ‘comfortable’ even.

But thriving on a round-arm left-arm spinner in ODI cricket isn’t a modern-day phenomenon. It’s been done before. In fact, Arjuna Ranatunga, another ODI skipper of the wily ilk, shepherded a World Cup dream in 1996 utilising the wiles of Sanath Jayasuriya. As it turns out, Jayasuriya is the highest wicket-taker among left-arm spinners in World Cup history. To boot, no left-arm spinner—round-arm or otherwise and with more than 10 wickets — has an economy rate over 5 in a World Cup career — a list that even includes the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Ravi Shastri. So what is it about these innocuous dart-em-in’s that makes them such nuisances for oppositions and darlings for captains?

Their raison d’être might be that their skill is repetitive, which allows their captain to develop fixed plans around them. But their benefits are multi-faceted. It starts with the rate at which they bowl their overs. Almost as if they are performing a sleight-by-hand magic trick. We’ve seen it with Jadeja, and we used to with Jayasuriya. The time between them handing their cap to the umpire and grabbing it back after six deliveries is often less than two minutes. Almost like the taxi services in Australia. One minute you’re calling for one, and the next minute, ‘there he is’.

Jadeja was once calculated at 1.41 minutes. It’s like the batsman often doesn’t know where the rest of the over went. With Jadeja & Co, their over-rates as individual bowlers can be as crucial as their economy rates. For, it kills the momentum of the opposition, and also allows a captain like Dhoni to control the tempo of the game. He can set a field to them, and trust them to bowl to it without any mid-over alterations. It’s like setting a metronome and not having to tinker with the beat.

Considering the inexperience of his pace attack, by bowling the middle overs at a rapid pace, he will also have the luxury of mulling for longer periods about setting fields and devising plans when Umesh Yadav & Co come on towards the end.

Neither Patel nor Jadeja might compare too well with R Ashwin in terms of spin bowling skill-sets, but they end up being probably more effective based on the Dhoni doctrine. They might not get too much purchase on the ball, fail to generate much loop and rarely turn a ball. But having two new-balls actually cancels out their limitations. By having three men back on the leg-side and Jadeja and Patel bowling balls angling into the pads, a right-hander’s only option for boundaries is either going inside-out, which exposes his stumps or lining up the ball and chancing his arm against the men on the fence. That’s where the subtle changes of pace that Jadeja and Patel generate helps them get wickets, like that of Shane Watson at the MCG had perished, bowled while sweeping against the quicker delivery. This also means that a captain finds it easier to manage the only-four-fielders allowed outside the circle rule with Jadeja & Co.

Then there are the striking abilities of both. While Patel might have failed in both innings so far, Jadeja averaged 61.50 with the bat and scored at a strike-rate of 110.14 in 2014. No wonder Dhoni’s been missing him.

As the World Cup approaches, India will have other bowling combinations to consider, especially with Stuart Binny having shown his worth at the Gabba. But you can’t help but feel that Dhoni’s suggestion of playing two left-arm spinners together wasn’t just a throwaway line. It was a calculated hint.