In a recent episode of the Stick to Cricket podcast on being asked by Michael Vaughn about how to win in Australia, Ravi Shastri retorts about how you’d want your spinners to play a containing role and provide some runs with the bat. This led me to think about how spinners are being used in modern cricket.
Test cricket is not a static format of the game; everything has changed about the contest between the batter and the bowler, and will keep changing. Batters are constantly trying to find new angles to push the ball between the fielders, and bowlers keep finding new ways to outsmart them and give away their wicket.
Player roles are constantly evolving along with the game, depending on conditions or team composition, and the state of the game. For example, it was usually the standard in test cricket to have openers who could defend and leave well who would see off the new ball, but openers like Sehwag and Hayden took on a more disruptive approach, opting rather to smash the new ball to the boundary to wear it out.
The decline of the specialist spinners
The recent exclusion of Kuldeep Yadav from the India-England test series is an indication of the lack of faith bestowed on specialist spinners on tours in SENA countries. Gone are the days of India opting to play specialist spinners in foreign countries like Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh or R.Ashwin. With the rise of a successful crop of spin bowling all-rounders such as Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel, India have chosen to travel with players who can give them returns with both the bat and the ball.
While bowlers like Kumble, Warne, and Greame Swann were seen as genuine wicket taking bowlers on SENA pitches, we now see 4 seamers being played alongside one spin bowling all-rounder who tries to hold runs while the seamer tries to poach away wickets.Teams seem to be trusting their pacers far more than spinners with trying to pick important wickets.
Only in sub-continent conditions do we see teams such as India, Srilanka and Bangladesh picking bonafide spinners for the sake of picking wickets. We often see SENA countries suffering on subcontinental tours due to a lack of wicket taking spinners at their disposal which has become more of a problem in recent years.
Kuldeep Yadav’s exclusion and Washington Sundar being picked ahead of Ashwin on the last tour to Australia is an indication of how teams are looking at playing specialist spinners versus playing spin bowling all-rounders who can also add runs to the total. Being a specialist spinner is not being seen as a skill that can cement a player’s place in the team on SENA tours anymore.
Why is this happening?
The last few years in test cricket have proved to be extremely effective for pace bowlers due to a combination of factors such as the reinforced seam of the Kookaburra ball, result pitches due to the WTC, and the innovation of the wobble ball overtaking test cricket. Reduced batting averages against pace worldwide may have led to a loss of faith in spin bowling specialists who might take up more time setting up a batter and getting their wicket.
Lower batting averages means that teams want to strengthen their tails or lower orders so that they can have some bonus runs off their backs, the spinners naturally come under the chopping block. Perceived that they cannot pick wickets and only slow down the run rate, they’ll have to score some runs to secure their place in the team.
How will this change team selection?
The great West Indies team of the 80s laid down a blueprint that to be a consistently successful test team, you have to have a platoon of high performing pace bowlers, today’s subcontinental teams seem to be be thinking along similar lines but they must not do it at the expense of the specialist spinners that have brought them so much success over the years.
The dominance of Australia over the 90s and the early 2000s relied a lot of Warne while Murali sustained the fortunes of Srilankan test cricket over almost two decades. Specialist spinners have been the cornerstone of poaching wickets worldwide while ensuring that home conditions remains a fortress for successful teams.
Today, with Nathan Lyon nearing the end of his career, Shoaib Bashir remains the last of the specialist spinners who is allowed to keep his place in the team while offering almost nothing with the bat. The fate of Shoaib Bashir and his career may be the destiny for specialist spinners in SENA conditions when it comes to contemporary test cricket.
Annsly Raena 
Tanya Singh 
Baishali Karmakar