When Indian cricket team played South Africa at the Champions Trophy in June last, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were the frontline spinners with Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav on the fringes.<\/p>\n
This time, as they head into a six-match ODI series with the Proteas, much of India\u2019s chances will depend on Chahal and Kuldeep, who have become key men for Virat Kohli over the last six months and displaced Ashwin and Jadeja from the limited-overs set-up.<\/p>\n
Testimony to their importance is the 60-time rise in Chahal\u2019s IPL stock from 2014.<\/p>\n
But bowling on these surfaces will be tough. They\u2019ll be fighting history and trying to achieve something their more celebrated predecessors weren\u2019t able to.<\/p>\n
On India\u2019s last tour to South Africa in late 2013, Ashwin and Jadeja endured a fruitless run in the ODIs. Even here at Kingsmead, which threw up the brownest surface they could have asked for in the southern hemisphere, India lost the series after allowing the Proteas to get to 300+ twice in three innings.<\/p>\n
Before them, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, two of India\u2019s most successful spinners, were unspectacular in South Africa. Take out the games against Kenya, Netherlands and Namibia, and the averages become even less flattering.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn South Africa, the wickets will be bouncy and there will be less turn, so I have to change my style a bit. Since the ball doesn\u2019t turn much, I won\u2019t be bowling full and will keep it shorter (pull back the length by 4-5 inches),\u201d he said ahead of the ODI series. The leg-spinner spent time at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), working on his length and fitness. There has been training, gym work and bowling at a single wicket.<\/p>\n
If NCA\u2019s spin specialist coach Narendra Hirwani is to be believed, Chahal could crack the code.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a chaalaak (smart) bowler. He reads the batsman\u2019s mind very fast. I\u2019d say (Chinaman) Kuldeep is high on skill but takes time to read batsmen. Chahal reads the batsman easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chahal explained, \u201cI always watch the batsman closely and till the very end.\u201d Like when he got Glenn Maxwell out thrice. The Aussie, capable of destroying spinners, was scalped by Chahal in the first three ODIs last year. On all occasions, the Aussie charged down the wicket and twice Chahal sent it wide outside off, out of his reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaxwell is good on leg, so I bowled outside off-stump,\u201d said Chahal, a former chess player.<\/p>\n
He attributed the presence of mind and mental strength to chess and IPL experience. \u201cInternational cricket becomes a bit easy because of IPL. You have already played with international cricketers and in front of big crowds. You get used to that kind of setup, scenario and pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cChess has given me mental strength, especially patience (waiting) for wickets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hirwani, who has also served as a visiting consultant for Haryana, the state Chahal represents at the domestic level, says a few adjustments have had to be made over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Indian cricket team played South Africa at the Champions Trophy in June last, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were the frontline spinners with Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav on the fringes. This time, as they head into a six-match ODI series with the Proteas, much of India\u2019s chances will depend on Chahal and Kuldeep, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20327,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20325\/revisions\/20327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}