Indian team need a spin-bowling coach, opines L Sivaramakrishnan

Indian team have been known for producing world class spinners over the years. Names like Erapalli Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin spring to mind when one thinks about some of the big spinners to have come out of the country. But former leg-spinner turned cricket expert L Sivaramakrishnan feels there is a dearth of spinners in the country and India is in dire need of a spin bowling coach. India spinners had struggled greatly in the ODI and T20I series preceding the four-match Test series in Australia with them not among many wickets.

Cricketer-turned-TV commentator L Sivaramakrishnan has stated that India are staring down at the dearth of spin options as there are not many players ready to fill in the gaping hole if the need arises.

 “I’ve been saying this for many years, the Indian team needs a spin-bowling coach. Kuldeep is not even playing for KKR regularly. Chahal had a bad tour of Australia. Jadeja is injured. Ashwin is 30-plus. Who is waiting in the wings to fill their boots? Who is pushing them for a place? Who is going to help Kuldeep and Chahal?” Sivaramakrishnan told SportsKeeda, reported TOI.

He gave examples of teams like Bangladesh and England and reckoned that just like them BCCI also need to hire a spin bowling coach. A while back, former Indian spinner Maninder Singh had also demanded the hiring of a spin bowling coach given India's recent spin travails. 

“Teams like Bangladesh and England have spin-bowling coaches, and the BCCI needs to identify this. There are points involved in the ICC World Test Championship, and we need to win at home. The fast bowlers are reverse-swinging the ball, and you have a good set of fast bowlers right now. But after Ashwin and Jadeja in Test matches, and Chahal in T20s?”, Siva said.

Kuldeep Yadav has been struggling since the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In IPL 2020, he wasn't even able to break into the XI for KKR in all the games. Siva feels India need to work out ways so that Kuldeep can be revived in international cricket as Indian spinners haven't done well in middle-overs.

“The reason they’re giving 375-380 runs is because of the middle overs, where the spinners are not able to control. I think the emphasis should be on spin-bowling, the revival of Kuldeep must be done at the earliest. You need to find another set of spinners who can come in,” the former leg-spinner pointed out.

“It’s got to be a long process involving a lot of hard work. At the highest level, all teams will look at specialisation. England is one team that does that - they have 15 players and 21 support staff. They take people like Saqlain Mushtaq or Mushtaq Ahmed to coach their spinners.”