#4 A quality spinner:
In limited overs cricket, team India’s incumbent spinners have been Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for quite some time now, but when we look beyond them, no one has been able to lock a place with conviction so as to slot into the XI as soon as he gets a chance in place of either of these two.
Harbhajan Singh has made comebacks but never got a regular run in the XI. Amit Mishra somehow doesn’t ever seem to enjoy his captain’s trust despite being a stellar performer across formats in the last few years, which includes a record performance of 18 wickets in a 5 match ODI series when team India toured the same country earlier, and Axar Patel hasn’t done enough with the bat to be able to comfortably replace Ravindra Jadeja in the team.
This time, the chosen ones are: Axar Patel (given another chance after a decent IPL), Yuzvendra Chahal, who’s impressed one and all in the last 2 IPL seasons, and Jayant Yadav, who has displayed an ability to keep a tight control over line and length, and hence, runs.
They’ll get 6 matches against a relatively weaker opposition to try and stake a claim to be India’s reserve limited overs spinner; one who can slot into the team at any time if Ashwin and/or Jadeja aren’t playing.
The front-runner: Chahal – After an outstanding IPL and given the fact that he’s a leggie, to complement the off spin and left arm spin of Ashwin and Jadeja respectively.
