Last Update on: December 20th, 2020 at 10:44 pm
Former leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has expressed his concerns with the lack of spin bowling options in Indian cricket. The 54-year old has opined that there is a dearth of up-and-coming spinners in India and believes that besides the current crop of spinners, there are not many names who can continue Indian cricket’s legacy in spin bowling.
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan believes that the Indian team needs a spin bowling coach urgently to sort out the issue and form a strong bench. He pointed out how the big names in the spin department are not up to the mark either. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan stated that Kuldeep Yadav was not even playing regularly in IPL while Yuzvendra Chahal did poorly in Australia.
He also pointed out that Ashwin is not getting younger as he mentioned the lack of backup options. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan stated that the likes of England and Bangladesh have spin bowling coaches and the BCCI need to do the same.
“I’ve been saying this for many years, the Indian team needs a spin-bowling coach. Kuldeep is not even playing for KKR regularly. Chahal had a bad tour of Australia. Jadeja is injured. Ashwin is 30-plus. Who is waiting in the wings to fill their boots? Who is pushing them for a place? Who is going to help Kuldeep and Chahal?” he told SportsKeeda.
“Teams like Bangladesh and England have spin-bowling coaches, and the BCCI needs to identify this. There are points involved in the ICC World Test Championship, and we need to win at home. The fast bowlers are reverse-swinging the ball, and you have a good set of fast bowlers right now. But after Ashwin and Jadeja in Test matches, and Chahal in T20s?,” added Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.
The former cricketer further stated that the spinners’ failure to do well in the middle-overs is the reason behind India conceding big totals in ODIs. In the recent series against Australia, India conceded 374 and 389 and ended up losing both the games. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan also said that Indian cricket needs the revival of Kuldeep at the earliest.
“The reason they’re giving 375-380 runs is because of the middle overs, where the spinners are not able to control. I think the emphasis should be on spin-bowling, the revival of Kuldeep must be done at the earliest. You need to find another set of spinners who can come in,” the former leg-spinner pointed out.
“It’s got to be a long process involving a lot of hard work. At the highest level, all teams will look at specialisation. England is one team that does that – they have 15 players and 21 support staff. They take people like Saqlain Mushtaq or Mushtaq Ahmed to coach their spinners,” he added.
Also Read: Prithvi Shaw Should Now Focus On Domestic Cricket: Pragyan Ojha
Also Read: Michael Hussey Explains Reasons Behind India’s Disastrous Collapse In Adelaide
