Indian Spinners: The new Fab Four

India has been the land of spinners for decades. From the days of Bishen Singh Bedi, Chandrasekhar & Venkataraghavan in the 70's to the days of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in the last decade, India has always produced world-class spinners.

Continuation of this tradition of producing great spinners has not only been maintained but at present, it has been taken to an all new level.

With the likes of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Jadav and Yuvendra Chahal (The new Fab Four of Indian Cricket) in our rank, this is surely India's Golden generation of Spin Attack.

Unfortunately, the number of slots for spinners in a team is always limited. As a result of this, the "Fab Four" of Indian Spin Attack, hardly gets a chance to play together.

Each of them is playing in a specific format only. And in spite of being match winners in the format in which, each of them plays, they are finding it difficult to make the playing eleven in the other formats.

In this article, the achievements of this Fab Four of present Indian Spin Attack will be looked into.

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#1 Ravichandran Ashwin:

This 31 year old Off Spinner from Chennai has been the biggest match winner for India in the Test matches over the last 5-6 years. Filling into the big boots of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh and taking over the responsibility of leading the Indian Spin attack, Ashwin has not only been successful in meeting the expectations but has exceeded it.

He has been the fastest to reach 300 wickets in the history of Test cricket surpassing greats like Denis Lillee and Mularitharan. His tally of 316 Test wickets in 58 test matches is just phenomenal. (More than 5 wickets per Match). With another 150 wickets in One Day Internationals and more than 50 T20 wickets, he has been a match winner for India in all formats of the game.

He has also been the most successful proponent of the "Carrom Ball", a new variety of delivery, in the game of cricket.

It is not only with the ball that Ashwin has contributed to India's success. As a Test Match batsman also he has scored more than 2000 runs with 4 hundreds at an average of more than 30.

Ashwin has undoubtedly been the most successful all-rounder for India after Kapil Dev. He has been consistently ranked as one of the top test bowlers as well as allrounders for the last few years. He is surely one of the all-time great Indian players. With almost a decade of International cricket ahead of him, there are many more milestones for Ashwin to achieve.

However, because of the meteoric rise of youngsters like Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, Ashwin has lost his place in the Indian ODI and T-20 side and it would be sad if a great like him, fails to make the 2019 World Cup squad.

#2 Ravindra Jadeja

Sri Lanka v India - Cricket, Day 3

Ravindra Jadeja, like his more illustrious bowling partner Ashwin, has also been a match winner for India in the Test matches for the last few years. Along with Ashwin, he has formed a lethal combination, especially in the Indian subcontinent. In only 36 test matches, he has picked up 171 wickets and also scored more than 1000 runs.

He has been consistently in the top 5 as a bowler and also as an allrounder in the ICC World rankings. In addition to his bowling and batting heroics, he has also been a brilliant fielder. His performance in the one day and T-20 internationals has also been very good.

However being born in the golden era of Indian Spinners, he has often missed out, especially in Test matches outside India, where the team plays with only one spinner. He has recently lost his place from the ODI and T-20 squads also, because of the emergence of Kuldeep Jadav and Chahal. However, with his talent, it is for sure that Jadeja will make a come back in the shorter formats and will continue to be a match winner for India in future.

#3 Kuldeep Jadav

England & India Net Sessions

This 23 year old Left arm Chainaman bowler has been a sensation in Indian Cricket. In the 23 odd ODI matches he played thus far, he has consistently run through the opposition top and middle-order batsmen and won India matches even in placid wickets. This is something which even the greatest of the Indian spinners have never been able to do.

In 23 ODIs he has picked up 48 wickets at an average of 19.35. In T20s also he has been awesome picking up 24 wickets in just 12 matches at an average of 13.2. Because of the presence of greats like Ashwin and Jadeja, Kuldeep has thus far played only in two test matches .

With his tremendous performance, he has won over the confidence of the team management and is now leading the Indian spin attack in limited overs cricket. If he can continue this form for the next few years, he will surely be an all-time great spinner. It is very likely that Kuldeep will be leading the Indian spin attack in 2019 World Cup ahead of Ashwin or Jadeja.

#4 Yuzvendra Chahal

CRICKET-ENG-IND-ODI

This young leg-spinner has been tremendously successful in the shorter formats of the game taking 45 wickets in just 26 ODI matches and 42 wickets in 26 T-20 matches. Like Kuldeep Jadav, Chahal has also been able to provide breakthroughs in the middle overs of ODIs, which is very important.

However, with greats like Ashwin and Jadeja breathing down his neck, he has to maintain his superlative performance to hold on to his national team place.

With his very good temperament and wicket taking ability, he will surely be an asset for Indian Cricket in the long run.