Attitude towards Spin Must Change to Be Number One

Teams that are aiming to go to the top or trying to stop at the top are forgetting one key essential that makes a well rounded, potent team – the role of the spinner.

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One could see clearly that Kevin Pietersen was making all efforts to back England’ strength – the fast bowlers. Whether it was Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Andrew Flintoff (or even Ryan Sidebottom in a vain battle to get fit), Pietersen has decided to back his team’s strengths. Even though Samit Patel was used effectively as a spinner against South Africa, his efforts appeared to pale away in front of those of the Indian spinners. Out of great compulsion (not to mention a fair bit of desperation), England’s first touted spinner, Graeme Swann, finally made a special appearance.

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Australia found themselves having to eat out of a dish served up too hot to handle by the Indians. Ricky Ponting showed a decided reluctance towards using spinners, which would explain why Cameron White himself did not look particularly the part when thrown the ball. White could always back on his all rounder abilities. But what Australia needed was a world class spinner. When Australia, like England, found themselves in dire straits, out came the spin weapon as did the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Jason Krezja’s delayed entry also cost Australia the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

South Africa suffer from the same malignancy. They always have, it could be argued, since South Africa made its entry into the international fold under Kepler Wessels. While the odd spinner got throw into the fray time again and subsequently grew in stature, even the likes of Pat Symcox, Paul Adams and Nicky Boje will tell they were not always first class citizens when it came to the bowling department. The ball, more often than not, was thrown the way of a fast bowler with the result that in recent times, South Africa have often been labeled as one dimensional for their heavy reliance on pace to bail them out.

New Zealand may not be able to make that cut yet, given that the team itself is in a major rebuilding phase and they are led by a spinner, captain Daniel Vettori. But they do not look like going to the top anytime in a hurry even though their performance against Australia in the first Test has tended to overturn that thought, fleetingly so at least.

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But coming back to the subject, Australia have looked more vulnerable for their lost plot. South Africa have meandered along the periphery for not following through on their development since re entry and have tended to even slip from their number two spot which was theirs for quite a long period. England have shown glimpses of brilliance in the midst of huge sweeping waves of mediocrity and the one thing that Kevin Pietersen could take out of this tour is the value of developing a world class spinner and then trusting him to go the job. It could well be the difference between Pietersen taking England to great heights in two years or watching England slip away despite the most innovative captains as was under the likes of Nasser Hussain and greatly so thereafter under Michael Vaughan.

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India are reaping the benefits of not only relying on spin but also finding a good growth of fast bowlers around the country with the likes of Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Joginder Sharma, RP Singh, Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan leading that pack. The fact that these fast bowlers are also coming from remote areas and not the predominant metropolitan areas is showing that when it comes to their trait, they do not suffer from the same foreign policy adaptation phobia like their foreign tourists.

Read about Paul Adams in : How Paul Adams wrote his own headlines