Spin city: Indian tweakers and their Dubai dominance

India's band of spinners have been a roaring success in the Emirates.

- Rasesh Mandani

DUBAI: Each of the quartet has their own unique selling point and they cover up each other's handicaps over the course of 50 overs.

While Ravindra Jadeja is the senior-most, he's the fittest of them all. Varun Chakravarthy is the newest starter, a mystery with the ball, but a weak link in the field. Kuldeep Yadav's world of spin is a rarefied place, for there are so few who bowl left-arm wrist spin like him. Axar Patel bowls the most common mode of spin but adroitly, with subtle variations.

Who knows if the four of them will ever come together again. It's uncommon to see so many overs of spin in an ODI. The Dubai leg of the Champions Trophy is an outcome of a concurrence of events - back-to-back tournaments in Dubai making the pitches tired and India's matches scheduled here for reasons other than sport.

India has made the most of the conditions. Not just by playing them but also by using them perfectly.