'Axar going to Australia not best move'

NEW DELHI: As Axar Patel packs his bags to join the Test squad in Australia, as a replacement for the unfit Ravindra Jadeja, there is a sense of unease in the spin fraternity of the country. He becomes another spinner getting into the Test squad riding on performances in the shorter and the shortest formats of the game, something a lot of experts are not really comfortable with. They ask, "Has the job of an Indian spinner come down to just containing?"

Spin legend Bishan Singh Bedi recalled, "I met the boy (Axar) recently during the ODI series against Sri Lanka and he said 'Sir, I am a limited-overs bowler. I am just doing what people have asked me to do.' This is an alarming trend." Even Team India assistant coach Sanjay Bangar, who has coached young Axar at Kings XI Punjab, had said Axar needed to work on his bowling in domestic cricket after a successful last IPL season for Kings XI Punjab. Even as the experts point at Indian spinners' ineffectiveness in overseas Tests, they point towards the captain's lack of confidence in his tweakers which is a bigger concern. "Bringing in Axar for just two Tests in place of the third spinner (Ravindra Jadeja) isn't a good signal for Karn Sharma who played the first match. That shows the captain has no confidence in his spinners. Dhoni wants his spinners to be just stock bowlers.

The captain's approach towards the spinners isn't doing any good," opined former off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna while adding that Axar is not yet a five-day bowler. "Our spinners are even struggling to get tailenders out," he added.

Maninder Singh, former India left-arm spinner, feels Axar has a good attitude but it needs to be used well by the captain. "It seems Dhoni doesn't know how to handle spinners. Besides, the current lot of spinners isn't ready for Test cricket. The example which the current Indian team has set is not good for encouraging the art of spin bowling. With the kind of pacers we have, you can't expect your fast bowlers to win you matches while the spinners do a restrictive job. The Lord's Test win was a fluke," Maninder remarked.

He, however, backed Virat Kohli's approach in the first Test. "As a captain, Virat was positive in playing Karn Sharma. Whatever may have been the results, at least thinking of playing a legspinner was an attacking decision," he mentioned.

Bedi's thoughts run on the same lines. "I felt both Virat and Karn's attitude was very good in the first Test match. The lad did bowl some good overs," Bedi said.

The experts feel the board needs to wake up. "The Indian board didn't plan for the crisis. There needs to be proper academies for spinners," Prasanna reckoned.

Maninder suggests, "You just can't take players out of limited overs cricket and expect them to do the job at the Test level immediately. The grooming needs to happen lower down the system."

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