Indian off-spinner R Ashwin. (FILE photo)After Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin has taken up the baton of being the goto off-spinner in Indian cricket. The willy spinner has bowled remarkable spells across the formats. However, the 37-year-old is not getting any younger either hence the team is looking for the next off-spinner who can replace Ashwin.
“India are definitely looking for a next-gen off-spinner, as in last India ‘A’ series against England Lions, they tried three off-spinners in three matches: Pulkit Narang, Washington Sundar and Saransh Jain,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“They are trying out and Washington Sundar is the front-runner behind Ravichandran Ashwin right now. He’s done well in whatever limited opportunities he’s got and I feel he will get his due first before going to anybody else,” Karthik added.
In the modern game, the bats have got bigger and most wickets are flat which makes the margin of error for off-spinners minimal, especially in white-ball cricket. However, leg-spinners and left-arm spinners are able to manage.
“See, any spinner will get hit on a given day. Off-spinners are much easier in the sense they get into the arc because a lot of cricketers are good at hitting sixes to cow corner. So it is a natural shot as off-spinners get into that slot very easily,” former India off-spinner and Tamil Nadu coach M Venkataramana speaking told The Indian Express once.
Off-spinners are finding it tough to make their mark in red-ball cricket as well, even on the domestic circuit. Former Tamil Nadu cricketer Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, when asked if white ball cricket is behind the relative lack of off-spinners in comparison leg-spinners and left-arm spinners in red-ball cricket, agreed, while adding another reason.
“We have also become a fast-bowling country. Now we have a lot more fast bowlers coming into the system. Spinners are not getting games because of that too. A lot of spinners of previous generations bowled at least 25-30 overs a day. But a lot of bowlers now bowl only 10 overs in an innings.”
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