 Tired spinners
As India go into the Mohali Test, they are beset by a serious problem in the bowling department: complete lack of sting in their spin attack. Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and hopefully Munaf Patel should present a formidable challenge to the English batsmen on the relatively seamer-friendly batting surface at Mohali, but Kumble and Harbhajan, only one of whom will probably play in the Test, posed no problem to the batsmen in the Nagpur match. They both seem to suffer from fatigue, more in the mind than the body perhaps, but fatigue all the same. They were collared by Pietersen and Co., even the debutante Alastair Cook, and have apparently run out of ideas. The audacity of the batsmen appears to anger Kumble in particular, not a good sign for a spinner. To add to India's woes, a number of catches were dropped. The long and short of it is that India's spinners are not match winners except on rank turners.
Monty Panesar of England was quite the best spinner on view at Nagpur. While it is a sad commentary on the decline of Indian spin, it is also a tribute to the sardar's obvious hard work. He looked ordinary when he came to India last year with England 'A', but his improvement since then has been remarkable. If India decide to play three seam bowlers at Mohali, they will play safe and play Kumble or Harbhajan, most probably Kumble, rather than blood Piyush Chawla. If they revert to the two-spinner formula in the next Test at Mumbai, the time will be ripe to introduce Chawla, something I had hoped the selectors would do at Nagpur. In my opinion, that one mistake cost India a chance to win.
Will the wicket at Mohali really favour pace? If it does, then India will have to contend with some high quality fast bowling from the Englishmen. Will we really witness a duel between Indian and English pace, or will the hair dresser get down to work on the eve of the match and give us a bald surface? We can only wait and see.
V Ramnarayan
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