Versatility among spinners helped India bag the title

Cricket has rarely witnessed bigger leg breaks delivered at such flat trajectories like that of Yuzvendra Chahal.

- Somshuvra Laha

KOLKATA: Or the carrom ball that Ravichandran Ashwin deployed so well to spook batters in IPL? There was a time when Washington Sundar was expected to bowl like Ashwin, albeit with bigger scores to back. Further back, Kedar Jadhav often used to jar batters with his slingy action, though batting was his main strength.

Around hypotheses and hopes were spun several combinations, sometimes to check the runs, sometimes to take wickets. Occasionally both boxes were ticked, but not with the level of consistency required to win ICC tournaments.

Like Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, hitting it off in red-ball cricket but not so much in limited overs. They lacked penetration in the 2015 semi-final against Australia at the SCG, although the economy was decent. In the 2017 Champions Trophy final at the Oval, that too was frittered away. Chahal was brought in along with Kuldeep Yadav and the wrist-spin era commenced.

But soon, India realised it wasn't effective though the pair was raking in wickets. Another World Cup semi-final, this time at Manchester, and Chahal ended up the most expensive among all the bowlers. All this while Jadeja kept wheeling away tight overs, saving boundaries, hitting crucial runs, making him the go-to man. Chahal was ultimately let go in 2023 by when Axar Patel was already contributing with bat and ball.