5 Indian spinners who faded away after promising starts

India has always been considered as a land of talented spinners. Since the early 1970s Indian spinners have dominated the world cricket with their enormous amount of talent.

Their ability to flight the ball in the air and extract turn out of dead pitches is a part of cricket folklore. From Bishan Singh Bedi to most recently Yuzvendra Chahal many spinners have donned the national jersey and graced the world stage with some sublime performances. Due to this very reason, non sub-continent countries always find it tough to tour India as they find it difficult to negotiate with the skill and artistry of the tweakers.

Even today, cricketers like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are the driving force behind India’s tremendous run in Test cricket.

However, some spinners still found it difficult to cement their place in the national side despite showing early signs of excellence. Here we list down five Indian spinners who failed to reach their true potential on the field.

5. Narendra Hirwani

Not many people make their Test debuts the way Narendra Hirwani did. The bespectacled, wily young wrist spinner from Madhya Pradesh took sixteen wickets in his first match against a mighty West Indian batting lineup. He took eight wickets apiece in both the innings and hence was touted to achieve greater things in the future.

However, reality struck him hard when Hirwani endured difficult tours to West Indies, New Zealand and England thereafter.

The youngster found the conditions alien and hence found it difficult to adapt in unsuitable conditions for spin bowling. A string of mediocre performances in 1990 against England meant that the selectors dropped him and hence Hirwani was never called back again. The fact that he played domestic cricket until 2006 shows that he had enough chances to stage a comeback in the 90s, but the poor performance in England never got off his back.

He played 17 Test matches for India and took a respectable 66 wickets. He had a relatively low economy rate of 2.77 runs per over.

Hirwani scalped 23 wickets in the 18 One Day Internationals he played, but never really replicated his performance from the first match. His career is a great testament of how adaptability is a huge factor to sustain a place in the national side.

4. Piyush Chawla

Piyush Chawla is a two-time World Cup winner with India and thus it is rather baffling that the leg-spinner finds him in this list. Chawla rose into prominence quite early in his career by putting in some notable performances in junior cricket. He is a conventional wrist spinner who can play his part with the bat too.

Despite being in the radar of national selectors for a long time, Chawla never became a regular for the national team.

In a long career, which started back in 2006, Piyush Chawla played only three Test matches for India. He represented India in 25 One-Day Internationals too and picked up 32 wickets in those matches, with his best performances coming against Pakistan and Hong Kong in 2008.

There has never been a doubt regarding Piyush Chawla’s talent as a wrist spinner. He loves to flight the ball in the air and is able to turn the ball in dead pitches too.

However, the inconsistency in the line and length meant that he leaked many runs in the middle overs. Opposition batsmen often identified him as a weak spot and tried to accumulate as many runs as possible.

A classic example of this scenario was the World Cup match against England at Bangalore in 2007. Andrew Strauss found Chawla’s leg spin easy to counter and smashed him all around the park at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Chawla gave away 71 runs in his quota of ten overs, which led the team management to drop him for the subsequent matches.

However, Piyush Chawla has been a regular in the Indian Premier League. He has played for Kings XI Punjab but now represents Kolkata Knight Riders and is a trusted player of captain Gautam Gambhir.

3. Ramesh Powar

Ramesh Powar is one of Mumbai cricket’s many gifts to the national team. Though Powar never really cemented his place in the team, he remained in the fringes of the national team for the latter part of the last decade. He was an off-spinner straight out of the textbook and hence enjoyed such a long and successful domestic career.

Powar spearheaded Mumbai’s bowling attack for many seasons and graduated to the international level with many expectations on his shoulders.

Honestly, Ramesh Powar’s international career never really took off completely. He was often considered a bits and pieces player who could not sustain the longevity of international cricket due to his impending fitness issues.

He played 29 One-Day Internationals and 2 Test matches for India and racked up some decent performances. Powar’s quick approach to the crease and a rather quicker bowling action enabled him to deceive the batsmen in many occasions.

He tossed the ball up a lot and always had new deliveries in his armoury. His famous ‘drifter’ made him make a comeback in the national side in 2007 after which he was part of a One-Day series in England too.

Ramesh Powar played for Mumbai and later Gujarat in his Ranji career. He was a trusted man with the bat and often bailed Mumbai out of testing times with his composed nature. He retired from all forms of cricket after the 2015/16 Ranji season and plays only exhibition matches now.

2. Pragyan Ojha

Pragyan Ojha is another left-arm spinner who lost his path midway through his career due to various issues.

The man from Hyderabad was a sensation in the junior cricket circuit and garnered a lot of appreciation due to his perfect bowling action.

Ojha was one of the frontrunners to become India’s first-choice spinner after Anil Kumble’s retirement but never really got a longer run at the highest level.

Ojha was primarily India’s second spinner in Tests, and managed to play 24 Test matches and took 113 wickets.

For a brief period, Ojha did actually become a regular in the side and featured in quite a few series between 2011 and 2013. However, Ravindra Jadeja’s emergence meant that Ojha had no place in the team and hence had to go back to domestic cricket.

Over the years there have been questions regarding his attitude towards the game. It was evident recently when he got into a feud with CAB chief Sourav Ganguly, when the former Indian captain refused to grant him a No-Objection Certificate ahead of this season.

He had to undergo numerous tests for his bowling action, which was eventually deemed illegal, and hence the national selectors are now skeptical to hand him a comeback into the side.

1. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan’s story might be one of Indian cricket’s most disappointing tales ever. The diminutive youngster from Tamil Nadu was making waves in the domestic circuit even before he turned 18.

There were talks all around that India might have just found their next big spinner after the retirement of the famous spin quartet from the 1970s. He made a grand entry into the international arena and had a splendid couple of years in the beginning. He played a key role in India’s title-winning campaign of World Championship of Cricket.

However, things began to fall apart as Sivaramakrishnan’s career progressed. He was unable to maintain consistency in his performances and was dropped from the national side a frequently.

Despite making a couple of comebacks, Siva was never the same player as before. He had lost a lot of sheen from his bowling and did not repeat the magic or mystery of before.

The young prodigal boy was lost somewhere in the midst of all the media attention. The skill set was not the same and hence performances deserted him. Arguably, lesser talented players namely Ravi Shastri and Anil Kumble went on to have a more convincing and fruitful career than Sivaramakrishnan.

Siva made some dire attempts to make a comeback by improving his batting skills so that he could be considered as an all-rounder. However, the young man never achieved what he was destined to.