Why leggies have become wrong'uns

Richie Benaud, Abdul Qadir, Anil Kumble, Mushtaq Ahmed, Bill O’Reilly, Clarrie Grimmett. Six legends of the game, and all of them were leg-spinners. The retirements of the two with the highest wicket hauls - Warne and Kumble - took place only a short time ago. But the leg-spinner has become an endangered species. The only frontline wrist spinner regularly selected for Test cricket in 2012 has been Imran Tahir. And his Test career now hangs by a thread after dispatched round the Adelaide Oval at well over a run-a-ball last week, and gaining little reward for it. With the demise of Tahir, we could well have seen the demise of the Test Match leg-spinner.

2012 has been a particularly challenging year for the art mastered by Warne. It was hoped that his career would inspire a generation of youngsters to bowl like him, but we are still waiting for anything remotely resembling the ‘new Warne’ to materialise. Since January just 387 overs of leg-spin have been delivered. 261 of those were bowled by Tahir, who has taken 17 wickets at an average of more than 55. No others have made a significant contribution to Test Matches with the ball - Devendra Bishoo’s 53 overs against the Australians at Bridgetown cost him his place in the West Indies team, Graeme Cremer took 2 wickets in Zimbabwe’s only Test of the year, and New Zealand new boy Todd Astle has so far contributed just 13 overs to his team’s strong showing in their ongoing Test in Sri Lanka. With left-armers Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel around the chances are he won’t feature when his team return to the more familiar surroundings of Napier and Wellington (or the Middle of Middle Earth as its being called this week). The leggie with the second most wickets is in fact David Warner, but something will have gone wrong if Australia start picking him for his tweakers.

Compare this current state of affairs with 2002. Warne and Kumble took 116 wickets between them, with Danish Kaneria taking 26 of his own and Stuart MacGill an impressive 14 in the 2 matches for which he was picked. To prove that that year wasn’t a legend inspired fluke, look no further than 1982 - Qadir took 38, Sri Lanka’s Somachandra de Silva weighed in with 23 and a number of others also made worthy contributions. This reflects the state of affairs in most years - until now.

So, why have leggies suddenly become wrong’uns? For a start leg-spin bowling is perhaps the hardest cricketing discipline to master: patience is needed on the part of the bowler, his captain and his coaches. Leg-spinners rarely understand their game until they’re in their 30s, and will often frustratingly bowl a rank long-hop at least once an over.  In the T20 age cricket those long-hops invariably find themselves hoiked over the boundary ropes, knocking the bowler’s confidence and, in the case of Tahir, making him look more club bowler than match-winning Test spinner. In the case of young players this can lead to them being hid away from the action when the going is tough. That in turn makes it difficult to justify their selection, and ultimately they need to have a second string to their bow to make sure they’re in the team at the good times. In the recent cases of Cameron White, Steve Smith and Adil Rashid the batting has to a greater or lesser extent taken over.

In addition, the decline of leg-spin has mirrored a boom in left-arm spin. Back in 2002 new England one-day coach Ashley Giles was the world’s best left-arm spinner, taking 23 wickets at 42. But in 2012 there are four left-armers with 20 or more wickets thus far, including Test cricket’s leading wicket taker in the calendar year Rangana Herath and, in just four Tests, Monty Panesar. Pragyan Ojha and Abdur Rehman are the others and, had Bangladesh played more Tests this year, Shakib-al-Hasan would also stand a good chance of being on that list. Some have attributed this to the Decision Review System and the increased chances of getting lbw decisions in the bowlers favour. But a reluctance to risk leg-spin is surely also a factor: where captains were once willing to back the wrist-spinners who give it a bigger rip, they are now favouring left-armers who turn the ball the same way whilst offering much more control.

Of course, leg spin can make a comeback - we’ve seen what Murali did for the supposedly dying art of off-spin. But attitudes will need to change. Leg-spinners will need to be backed more, and will need to take the initiative in focusing more on cutting out the long-hop. Otherwise Michael Clarke’s slaughter of Tahir might have marked the end of the front-line Test Match leg-spinner.

No need for new era as England go to India with cause for optimism

In less than two days time England embark on the next stage of their quest to win a Test series in Asia, led by a new captain in Alastair Cook, but otherwise with largely the same personnel that went to the UAE and Sri Lanka last winter. Expectations are low, but on the face of it there should be little reason to believe that England cannot win a first series in India since 1985.

In some quarters the tour has been described as the beginning of a new era for English cricket, but in reality the switch in leadership was all about continuity rather than change. Cook has been groomed for captaincy since he first stepped into an England dressing room seven years ago, has been one-day international captain for eighteen months, and this is not even the first Test tour to the sub-continent that he’s led - he stood in for Andrew Strauss in Bangladesh, and by all accounts did an excellent job. Therefore, a change in team ethos is highly unlikely and rightly so: under Strauss England became a highly professional and effective outfit, guided by a world leading team of support staff. Expect Cook’s first target to be to ensure that this is replicated under his command.

The make up of the team will also have a familiar look to it when it is named after the toss in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The enforced replacement of Strauss with Nick Compton, and the inclusion of Stuart Broad (who was injured last spring) in place of the now crocked Steven Finn are likely to be the only two changes from the 2^nd Test in Sri Lanka, a match which England won. That reflects the fact that despite an unconvincing twelve months, there can be little dispute over who England’s best players are. The batting unit may have failed in the sub-continent last winter, but to my mind Cook, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and, yes, Kevin Pietersen are world class batsmen, each of whom has shown ability to play spin in the past. Cook and Trott have had success in Asia before, Pietersen has smashed Warne and Murali to all parts, and Bell has scored runs in matches played on turning pitches, albeit rarely in Asia. Matt Prior is undoubtedly the best ‘keeper-batsman in the world game. Meanwhile, a disappointing effort against South Africa aside, James Anderson and Stuart Broad have formed an incisive new ball partnership in recent years.  Tim Bresnan lost form this summer, but all the evidence from the tour games suggests he’s back in the sort of rhythm which has provided him with success against India in the past.

Nevertheless, we should not kid ourselves that this will be easy. Few teams have won Test series in India within the last decade, and all batsmen that have faced Ravichandran Ashwin in Asia have struggled thus far. It is likely that he’ll take the new ball, ensuring that England’s batsmen are put under pressure from ball one, and unable to take advantage of getting set against the seamers, as is their preference. Pragyan Ojha is also a better left-arm spinner than he’s often given credit for. These are not spinners that England can expect to bully, as they did to Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra in England. But it is surely not asking too much to expect top class international players, as so many of the England line-up are, to play sensibly and effectively against slow bowling.

The Indian batting line-up will present England with both hope and fear. It is hard to argue that this top seven is any stronger than the group which failed to top 300 more than once against these same England bowlers a short time ago, and Anderson, Broad and Bresnan will feel they have a mental edge over Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh. Gambhir, in particular, would appear to have major technical issues against the moving ball - an issue for an opening batsman. However, India’s line-up like their home comforts, and Virat Kohli is in as good a form as Amla was when England came across him in the summer. Unsurprisingly India play spin particularly well, potentially negating the effectiveness of Graeme Swann and Samit Patel.

So to the question of what England need to do differently from their sub-standard efforts over the last twelve months. Firstly, they need to take their catches - near perfect fielding was a hallmark of the team in 2010 and 2011, but that seemed to slip last year. Secondly, they must make sure they don’t panic against spin - there is no reason why any of the batsmen ought to be technically incapable of playing slow bowling so a better mental approach should do the trick. Finally, with the ball they need to finish teams off: crucial lower order runs stopped them getting away with some shaky batting efforts last year. Do all three of these things well and a series win is well within England’s reach.

Overall, England should not be daunted by this series. They are playing an opponent that suffered a 4-0 reversal at their hands last time round, and it is difficult to see how India are a better team than they were then. Dealing with the Indian spinners is a tough task for any batsman, but there is no reason why England’s line-up should not be up to the challenge technically. Therefore, if Alastair Cook’s team are able to win the mental war and replicate the professionalism demonstrated in 2010 and 2011, they stand a good chance of confounding the predictions and defending the Pataudi Trophy. It won’t be easy but its certainly not impossible.