A new book uses data to show that all three forms of spin bowling are team India’s strengths

Can you name an Australian left-arm spinner with more than 74 Test wickets?

Or a leg spinner from England who played with any success in the last 60 years?

Apart from Muralitharan, Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera, can you name a Lankan spinner with over 100 wickets?

Is there a Pakistani left-arm spinner apart from Iqbal Qasim who has more than 70 Test wickets?

Has any West Indian leg spinner captured at least 60 wickets?

Imran Tahir is the leg spinner playing for South Africa now, but did any leg spinner play for them in the last 80 years?

Name a New Zealand spinner other Daniel Vettori with more than 110 wickets.

Actually, all these questions can be answered with a simple “None,” or “No”. If a similar set of questions were to be asked about India, each of the questions would be answered with a resounding “Yes” and the accompanying details!

Sometime in November 2011, we culled and massaged facts and figures about all three kinds of spin – left-arm spin, right-off spin and leg spin – and we realised that India alone among all Test-playing nations has an even and strong presence in all three forms of spin bowling. All the other countries have lacked in at least one kind of spin and when you consider a composite picture, India clearly emerges as the only country that is equally strong in all three.

Our analysis is based on data as of early November 2011; we have also only considered data of spinners who have a minimum of 30 Test wickets. And this is what our analysis shows.

• Indian spinners have taken 3,380 wickets and distributed this among themselves so evenly that off-spin accounts for 32 per cent, leg spin for 34 per cent and left-arm spin for the other 33 per cent.

• The Tests that spinners have played for India are also nicely distributed: off spin 444; leg spin 311 and left-arm spin.

• Their workload too has been even: around 87,000 balls bowled by off-spinners, 81,000 by leg spinners and nearly 100,000 balls by left-arm spinners.

• At most times through India’s Test history, one will always find a pair of spinners or a spin trio in its lineup.

• If one were to name the great spinners over the ages, India would be the only country that is represented in all three forms of spin bowling. Take a look: Mankad and Bedi in left-arm spin; Gupte, Chandra and Kumble in leg spin, and Prasanna, Venkataraghavan and Harbhajan in off spin.

• Indian spinners have taken ten wickets in a match on 29 occasions. As a percentage of the number of Tests their spinners have played, this may be inferior to England, West Indies and of course Sri Lanka (read Muralitharan). But the point is that these 29 occasions are quite nicely shared by all three tribes – on 9, 12 and 8 occasions by off spin, leg spin and left-arm spin, respectively.

• Similarly India’s list of spinners who have 100 wickets and more, has four off-spinners, three leg spinners and four left-arm spinners.

• None of the other countries even remotely have this kind of evenness of strength. While Australia is absolutely dominant in leg spin, it is completely absent in left-arm spin. In the case of England, it is top of the charts on left-arm spin but cuts a forlorn figure in leg spin.

• It is only in off-spin that the major cricket-playing countries seem to be fairly evenly matched over the ages. Each country has a fair representation of wickets taken by off-spinners as a percentage of their country’s spin tally. Thus, 29 per cent of Aussie spin wickets have gone to the off-spinner, England 38 per cent, India 32 per cent, New Zealand 38 per cent and Pakistan 26 per cent. West Indies, because of the exploits of Lance Gibbs and Sonny Ramadhin and the longevity of Carl Hooper, has most of its spin victims in its off-spin column. Every country has an off-spinner in the “100 wickets plus” club; England leading the way with six of them, India close behind with four, while Australia and West Indies each have three such bowlers. Clearly, there is an even distribution of success in off-spin, unlike leg spin or left-arm spin across Test-playing nations.

To appreciate why this evenness of strength in spin is such a special feature, one must scan the other cricketing nations. Pakistan like Australia has a strong and successful tradition in leg spin, with great spinners like Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq Ahmed but conspicuous in its low share of left-arm spin. Take out Iqbal Qasim and they have a negligible presence in this department. West Indies spin revolves around three spinners. Lance Gibbs their off-spinner, Sonny Ramadhin the mystery spinner and Alf Valentine the left-arm spin twin of Ramadhin. South Africa about 100 years ago had three googly bowlers and in fact trounced England in a series using this spin trio. Much later they had the formidable off-spinner “Toey Tayfield,” of whom it was said that if you waited for him to bowl a bad ball, you would have to wait forever. Their left-arm spin is only remembered for the Chinaman bowler Adams. Sri Lanka is Muralitharan and Muralitharan is Sri Lanka. In that one sentence, which can be seen as absolutely infuriating or extremely inspiring is the story of Lankan spin. New Zealand’s spin can similarly be told in just two words: Daniel Vettori.

The compelling fact that sets India apart is its rich and consistent line of spinners of all three varieties through the ages. The spin quartet of Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna and Venkat playing together for more than a decade perhaps has no parallel in cricket history. The 1950s too were rich for India. Subhash Gupte was easily the best leg spinner of his time and complementing him from the other end was Vinoo Mankad, the left-arm spinner, perhaps the greatest spinning all-rounder the game has ever produced. Playing alongside Mankad and Gupte was Ghulam Ahmed, an off-spinner of distinction.

The years between Vinoo Mankad and Bedi belonged to Nadkarni and Durani and by then Chandrasekhar had also arrived and the famous quartet was round the corner. It was only during the entire 1980s that India did not have a great spin combination. In fact, none of the spinners who played in that period rose to greatness. Left armer Dilip Doshi was the best of them. Shivlal Yadav, the off-spinner, never rose above the ordinary and frustrated his captain’s carefully planned field setting. Sivaramakrishnan, the prodigiously talented leg spinner came and disappeared like a shooting star. Maninder Singh, a genuine talent like Siva, never lived up to his early promise. And then Kumble arrived in 1990! With Harbhajan joining him some years later, India again had a potent pair of spinners and between them they took over 1,000 wickets as India tasted success against every country. With the retirement of Kumble and the waning of Harbhajan, the cupboard was again bare every form of spin for a short while.

And then came Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Debuting in November 2011 and December 2012 respectively, they have formed one of the most lethal spin combinations in cricket history. The Ashwin-Jadeja duo has taken 500 Tests in the 49 Tests they have played together and are just one wicket adrift of the Kumble-Harbhajan combination. Times have changed and no longer does India play more than one spinner when they go abroad. Spinners hunting in a pack may be a thing of the past, at least outside the subcontinent.

Excerpted with permission from Mid-Wicket Tales: A Century and More of Cricket, VJ Raghunath and S Giridhar, Speaking Tiger Books.