Spin may be the watchword for India against Aussies too at Mohali

The Pakistani commentator said it looked like the turning tracks were following India to which the Indian commentator wondered whether it was the reverse: are the Indians following the rank turners? Anyway, it was clear from the way Mahendra Singh Dhoni reacted to the situation that India were not only scared of batting on such tracks, they were even more worried bowling their spinners on them. Or else, how will he explain the fact that Ashwin, the best Indian spinner, did not get his fourth over and Raina, though quite under-rated but good enough to pick up a wicket each in the two matches he played, was also not given the full quota of overs. 

Instead, an over-enthusiastic Hardik Pandya was preferred and surprisingly, even an otherwise reliable Bumrah was erratic bowling full tosses. Both of them leaked runs in the last stretch but these could be attributed to the pressure factor. However, the spin worry may haunt India in this tournament if they don’t address it properly. 

The reluctance to bowl your spinners — Yuvraj, who always took wickets in the last World Cup which India won, was not given even one over in the last two matches — may have stemmed from the fact that the Indian captain was probably worried watching the amount of spin and more worried the Indian spinners were not even making the Pakistani batsmen play, just relishing the ball leaving the bat at right angles. 

Fortunately for India, Pakistan did not have good spinners and Virat Kohli showed the art of playing spin on such tracks. Curiously, India had lost a Test in the 1987 at Bengaluru in almost similar conditions. 

Maninder Singh turned the ball square against Pakistan and took seven wickets in the first innings. But when he was required to play the key role of bowling Pakistan out in the second innings, he was doing exactly what Jadeja did at Kolkata while a less-acclaimed spinner Iqbal Qasim on the other side reaped the reward for heeding to the advice of Maninder’s ‘guru’ Bishan Bedi, who had told him not to try and spin the ball too much on such tracks. Indians fell short by 16 runs chasing a target of 220 despite Sunil Gavaskar’s 96 in what was to be his last innings. 

Most probably, the turners may chase India to Mohali next Sunday when they play Australia in a possible knockout encounter and Dhoni could well bring in Harbhajan Singh in place of either Suresh Raina or Hardik Pandya to tackle Steve Smith’s brigade.