From Erapalli Prasanna and S. Venkataraghavan to Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin, India has seen several high-calibre off-spinners who have proven to be pivotal for the Indian team from time to time. In between, Shivlal Yadav and Rajesh Chauhan also made their presence felt as off-spinners in India team. Similarly, in World cricket, JimLaker, Sonny Ramadhin, Hugh Tayfield, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nathan Lyon, Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Ajmal have worked their magic with their fingers as off-spinners. But today, the art of off-spin seems to be fading in world cricket. Interestingly, despite the presence of Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar, these players couldn’t become a part of the Indian team for the up-coming World Cup, 2023. They were not part of the previous World Cup either in 2019. The truth is that India’s dependence on them has increased only after the arrival of Harbhajan and Ashwin in the World Cup. In the 1987 and 1992 World Cups, Team India did not have a single off-spinner. On the first occasion, Team India had two left-arm spinners in the form of Ravi Shastri and Maninder Singh. However, for the next World cup, Venkatapati Raju replaced Maninder Singh as another left-arm spinner. In 1983, we managed with Kirti Azad as a part-time off-spinner. We relied on Ashish Kapoor in 1996 and with Nikhil Chopra in 1999 WC. Similarly, the situation is not much different in other selected teams for the WC. Australia has a fantastic off-spinner in Nathan Lyon, but they do not utilize him in the ODI cricket as well as in ODI World Cup. England has Moeen Ali, whose batting is trusted more than his bowling. Pakistan relies on their part-timers Iftikhar Ahmed and Agha Salman. The South African team does not have an off-spinner.
In such a scenario, it is essential to raise the question: has the relevance of off-spinners diminished today? Why is it that off-spinners are primarily judged based on their batting abilities? Pakistan’s former off-spinner Tauseef Ahmed says that the prominence of off-spinners has reduced due to the prevalence of T20 cricket. However, he believes that off-spinners can still be effective today. In reality, off-spinners have less variation in their repertoire compared to leg-spinners. Their “doosra” delivery used to be effective, but it faced issues with cricket regulations. This is precisely why India does not include top-class off-spinners like Ashwin and Australia excludes Nathan Lyon from their WC teams. Moreover, bowlers like Muttiah Muralitharan, Saqlain Mushtaq, Harbhajan Singh, and Sunil Narine faced controversies over their bowling actions at some point. The truth is that in limited-overs cricket, the role of off-spinners have become more to control runs and run rate. They may not have the wicket-taking ability like leg-spinners or left-arm chinaman bowlers.
Indeed, while there may not be a specific term for left-arm off-spinners in cricket, but like players like Ravindra Jadeja exhibit such skills. Their deliveries turning away from right-handed batsmen can be quite effective. Similarly, Kuldeep Yadav’s deliveries turn both ways. Therefore, Jadeja is like a left arm off spinner but this term is not used in cricket. Both Jadeja and Kuldeep can be seen compensating for off-spinners. Former off-spinner Venkatraghavan used to have a deadly straighter-one delivery. This very attribute can be seen in Akshar Patel today. Similarly, Prasanna has achieved significant success with flight and loop in his bowling. Kuldeep Yadav is also prepared to capitalize that such deliveries at crucial intervals. Bhajji used to trouble batsmen with his deceptive length with bouncy deliveries. Akshar Patel can use his height to create problems for batsmen with a similar type of delivery.