If there’s one incident that sums up just how much the Indian men’s cricket team is struggling with an off-spinner, it’s this. Head coach Gautam Gambhir and ODI captain Shubman Gill reportedly wanted Washington Sundar for the home ODI series against the West Indies next month, but couldn’t have him because VVS Laxman, the team’s temporary head coach for the Asian Games, wanted the spinner more.
India will field two teams simultaneously as the West Indies series and the Asian Games clash. The West Indies ODIs will begin on Sunday, September 27, and India’s first match in the men’s cricket Asiad will begin on September 28. Most players were easily sorted in the ODI and T20I departments, but not Sundar.
According to a report in Jagran, Gambhir and
Gill wanted Sundar as a counter to the West Indies’ left-hander-heavy batting lineup. Gambhir has always been a big fan of Sundar’s all-round skills, which shows in his selections in the playing 11. However, Laxman, too, wanted Sundar for the Asian Games for the same reason: to counter the left-handers that India will potentially face against teams like Nepal.
The report said that Laxman prevailed in the standoff and, as a result, pace all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy was removed from the Asian Games squad and added to the West Indies ODI contingent to bolster the all-round department for Gambhir.
Alarming situation for India
This should send alarm bells ringing at the BCCI. India is producing left-arm spinners like a factory, so much so that both Manav Suthar and Harsh Dubey, equally talented young all-rounders, aren’t able to get into the side. But at the same time, right-arm off-spinners are nowhere to be found.
Some in the fraternity believe it’s due to the push towards T20 cricket, which favors left-arm spinners’ frugality over off-spinners’ agression and flight. Some talented players are currently developing, but it would be a long time before we can see them at the highest level.
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