Veteran Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik backs young, uncapped Indian spinner Ravi Bishnoi to challenge senior leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for a place in the ODI squad, arguing that the latter, despite his recent struggles in restricted cricket, is out for the following reasons: Not challenged by the lack of wrist rotation options.

In the period leading up to the 2019 ODI World Cup, Chahal’s strike rate of 24.19 in 24.19 and 29.3 has picked up 78 wickets for India in 53 ODI matches. Chahal’s performances took a nosedive after the big game, and the spinner is now picking 14 wickets with a 35.64 average in nine overs at 36.8. Even in the most recent series, against South Africa, Chahal took just two wickets for 147 overs in three ODIs.

Karthik, in his conversation with Cricbuzz, believes that Chahal is lucky because they didn’t have a wrist rotation challenge. He believes that apart from Chahar, India currently has two other leg-spin options, Rahul Chahar and Bishnoy. While Chahal has yet to make a comeback after last year’s T20 World Cup, Bishnoy has been selected for the West Indies series, which starts at home on February 6.

“At this point, outside of Chahar, if you had to choose a wrist spinner, there was Rahul Chahar and Ravi Bishnoi. Looking at the way things are going, I do feel that Bishnoi is ahead at the moment “But we need to see how bad Chahal is bowling. His stats suggest he hasn’t had the best years. But in many ways, he’s been lucky because nobody pushed him to get a place in the team,” Kartik said.

The 36-year-old believes the lack of domestic cricket over the past two years has been the main reason for the lack of leg-turners into the ranks, leaving selectors to judge players only by the IPL.

“So you have to understand that these things are happening due to the lack of domestic cricket. We only focus on the IPL. As far as new bowlers are concerned, there is nothing to see, there are a lot of fast bowlers, but when it comes to wrist spinners, almost no.

“And that will remain an issue due to lack of domestic cricket, because you need people with a lot of wickets, especially wrist spinners, and they haven’t played the longer format. They play only 4-5 games of Vijay Hazare and that’s all you get as a sample to choose from. That is why in the last two years you haven’t seen anybody come out from the ranks. And the main reason is of course Covid which has created a havoc for many domestic cricketers. While a lot of the international cricketers want a break, the domestic cricketers want a game right now,” he explained. 

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times