New Delhi. Who is India’s best spinner? After the announcement of the Indian team for the Asia Cup, this discussion has started once again. At the center of this debate are the two bowlers Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Kuldeep Yadav has been included in the Indian squad for the Asia Cup, while Chahal has been shown a way out. After the announcement of this team, Chahal’s supporters say that injustice has been done to him. Now India’s veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh has also jumped into this debate. Harbhajan Singh bluntly said, ‘There is one deficiency in the Asia Cup squad and that deficiency is Yuzvendra Chahal. Chahal is India’s best spinner right now. Is UG really wronged? Is Yuzvendra India’s best spinner today? Let’s try to know based on statistics of ODI matches.
Cricket is a game in which statistics are available in countless ways. For example, if a bowler is to be judged by statistics, his wicket is looked at first. After this comes the number of norms like average, economy rate, strike rate. If any two bowlers are compared and they look similar on these criteria, it remains to be seen which team they performed against and what the pitch was like. In this article, we have compared active spinners in India based on these parameters. These active spinners are Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akshar Patel and Washington Sundar.
Jadeja took the most wickets
Among India’s active spinners, Ravindra Jadeja has an edge over the rest of his peers. Jadeja has taken 194 wickets in 177 ODIs. Ashwin has taken 151 wickets in 113 matches. Kuldeep has taken 141 wickets in 84 matches and Yuzvendra Chahal has taken 121 wickets in 72 matches. Akshar Patel has taken 58 wickets in 52 matches and Washington Sundar has taken 16 wickets in 16 matches.
But here one thing has to be kept in mind that Ravindra Jadeja does not play as a spinner in the Indian team. His position is that of an all-rounder. Jadeja has become an essential member of the current Indian team. Be it Asia Cup 2023 or World Cup 2023, Indian team cannot be imagined without Jaddu. Apparently, when it comes to picking a specialist spinner like Kuldeep Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal in the team, Jadeja is not on that list.
Why did Ashwin lag behind after taking more wickets?
Apart from Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin has also taken more wickets than Kuldeep or Chahal. He is also an active cricketer. Many former cricketers or coaches are also advocating Ashwin’s inclusion in the Indian ODI team. But be it Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri pair or Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid pair. Both these captain-coaches do not want to keep Ashwin in the ODI team. As a result, Ashwin has played only 11 ODIs in the last six years. And this is the reason why when Harbhajan Singh talks about India’s best spinner for the ODI team, he does not include Ashwin in that list.
It is clear that Yuzvendra Chahal is being challenged only by his best partner Kuldeep Yadav as a specialist spinner in the ODI team. The Indian team management is under pressure to choose between these two. Cricket lovers know that only 15 member squad is selected for World Cup. If looking at the combination in the playing eleven, only 2 spinners will play in most of the matches. One of these 2 spinners will be Ravindra Jadeja. The battle now is who should be the second spinner in the playing eleven. Now Kuldeep Yadav has gone ahead to answer this question and there is a reason behind it.
The pairing of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, popularly known as ‘Kulcha’, was a superhit spin pair ahead of the 2019 World Cup. After Team India’s semi-final defeat in World Cup 2019, the Indian team management has started giving opportunities to new spinners. The reason was that Yuzvendra Chahal was not as effective in ODIs as he was in T20 matches. The same can be said about Kuldeep Yadav. After almost 3 years of experimentation, the result is that India has a severe dearth of quality spinners and this is the reason why the team management starts looking towards Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal with high hopes. Thus in 2022-23 ‘Kulcha’ makes a strong comeback in the team.
Yuzvendra Chahal has been given a chance in 14 ODIs in the year 2022, in which he has taken 21 wickets at an average of 27.09. But in 2023, he gets a chance in only two matches, in which he took 3 wickets. Similarly, Kuldeep took 12 wickets at an average of 27.75 in 8 matches in 2022. Then in the year 2023, he has so far taken 22 wickets in 11 matches at an average of 17.18. That is, 2023 is the year when Kuldeep starts to overtake his partner Yuzvendra Chahal in statistics as well. In terms of cricketing form, Kuldeep is performing well when the team has to choose between him and Yuzvendra Chahal. Apart from this, another thing that goes in Kuldeep’s favor is that he is a Chinaman bowler. This is a mode of cricket where very few bowlers can dominate. And if a Chinaman and a leg-spinner or an off-spinner are at the top at the same time, the former bowler, who is Kuldeep, is the most difficult to play.
Overall, it can be said that Yuzvendra Chahal is at par with Kuldeep Yadav in statistics. But they have lagged behind in form. However, whenever there are two identical players in a team and one of them has to get a chance, the power is given to the captain and the team management. This time too if Kuldeep Yadav gets a chance in the Asia Cup squad and Yuzvendra Chahal doesn’t, no one needs to be blamed. It was about taking a call. Captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid had to choose between Kuldeep Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal and they have given their decision.
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Tags: Asia Cup, Harbhajan Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, World Cup 2023, Yuzvendra Chahal
First published: August 24, 2023, 14:10 IST