NEW DELHI: Eyebrows were raised when India announced five spinners in the team for the ICC Champions Trophy. Historically, the pitches in Dubai do not overly favour spinners. However, the venue has also just got done with the month-long ILT20 league which may have left the pitches tired and more amenable to spin. Predominantly, though, India’s spinner-heavy squad was chosen to lengthen the batting lineup, TOI has learnt.
The trend emerging from head coach Gautam Gambhir’s tenure is the inclination to have more allrounders in the lineup across formats. Gambhir has been vocal about the need to bat deep. Seambowling allrounders are a rarity at the moment. Hence, Washington Sundar too has made the cut along with Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.
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Interestingly, it was Gambhir who insisted on having Shivam Dube back in the ODI scheme of things by adding him to the list of non-travelling reserves, say insiders.
Gambhir is someone who prefers to have more options in the playing XI. More allrounders give him the chance to be flexible. If India advance in the tournament, spinners are likely to play a greater role.
The idea, according to those in the know of developments, is simple — play two steady finger-spinners who can bat well to complement either Kuldeep Yadav or Varun Chakravarthy. Kuldeep and Chakravarthy are seen as genuine strike options. If the pitches at the start look like they can produce big runs, one might see Chakravarthy in the XI ahead of Kuldeep. The majority of Chakravarthy’s wickets have come while the batters have been looking to push the scoring rate. Kuldeep is seen as someone who can deceive the batter in the air and lure him into a false shot, like he did against England in the last ODI in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
There are other factors too. India have played two Asia Cups at the venue over the last seven years and never played more than two frontline spinners in the XI.
Jasprit Bumrah’s absence and Mohammed Shami being rusty after a long injury layoff has played a part in India picking a spin-heavy attack which can compensate for the inexperience of the two new pacers, Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh. It will be interesting to see how India’s campaign unfolds on the Dubai pitches, which usually sport a layering of grass to prevent the surface from cracking up.