Nowadays, the pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin is proving to be effectively dangerous in international cricket. In the first Test against Sri Lanka, the deadly duo pulverised Sri Lanka with efficacious bowling.
Like batting, partnership matters a lot in bowling too. It is the result of mutual understanding of both that they have scalped innumerable wickets as a pair in the international fixtures.
It has been seen that this pair is being compared with the pair of Kumble and Harbhajan— which is not right in my opinion. The Kumble-Bhajji pair has been successful in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia. It is obvious that the pair of Jadeja and Ashwin will be properly tested in these countries. There if these two perform well then you can think of comparing them. By the way, I have been of the opinion from the beginning that it is not right to compare the performances of players belonging to two different eras.
If supporting wickets are available in the `SENA` countries, then only these two can play together. By the way, most of the teams play with only one spinner there. As far as the success of foreign teams with spin in India is concerned, I would like to name the England team here because Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann bowled brilliantly on the Indian tour in 2012 and played a big role in England`s victory in India. In fact, the last time India lost to the same team at home because of these two spinners. The partnership of these two bowlers was a sight to behold. A bowler from one end used to create pressure, which in turn benefited the bowler at the other end. One of the reasons for the success of both was also that both used to use pace in their deliveries. Maybe they learned this skill from Kumble. But at the same time, Shane Warne could not get that much success in India because he could not get that much support from the spin partner at the other end.
Among Indian spinners, Bishan Singh Bedi impressed me the most. Next in the line, I was impressed by Maninder Singh’s lethal spinning deliveries. He used to get a good bounce after drifting the ball. Sivaramakrishnan used to bowl with him at the other end. LBW decisions were never given even on the front foot, but now a lot has changed. I believe if there was DRS at that time then the number of wickets of spinners of that time would have been even higher.
The writer is Virat Kohli`s coach and a cricket expert. Views expressed are the writer’s personal.
