Harbhajan: Finger spinners need to reinvent to remain relevant in ODIs

Senior offspinner Harbhajan Singh feels Ravindra Jadeja is still in with a chance to make Indias World Cup squad on the back of his allround skills but to survive purely as a finger spinner he will have to improviseWrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have become Indias preferred choices in the shorter formats over the last 18 months while Jadeja and R Ashwin have gone down in the pecking orderHarbhajan who has played three 50over World Cups including two finals is still not ready to count Jadeja out even though he was not a part of the playing XI during the justconcluded ODIs in New ZealandIf you remember during the 2017 Champions Trophy the weather in UK was hot and humid So if conditions are same Jadeja could still be used as a package if the opposition team has five to six righthanders in their lineup Play him as No6 with Hardik Pandya as No7 Also he is still your best fielder Harbhajan told PTI during an exclusive interviewOne of the finest offspinners of his generation Harbhajan agreed that finger spinners stocks are down compared to wrist spinnersIts simple wrist spinners have three basic variations Legbreak googly wrongun and the flipper If you add top spinner which is rarely used in ODIs it becomes four the 38yearold with 417 Tests and 269 ODI wickets saidNow come to an offspinner If you dont have an effective doosra the offbreaks become predictable and good batsmen will line you up for slogging Even Nathan Lyon was struggling in the ODIs and he is a classical offbreak bowlerUnless you have the ball that leaves the righthander it is very difficult to dislodge the legspinners from shorter formatsThe veteran also feels that worldwide there has been a decline in the quality of batting against spin bowling especially the wrist spinnersThe art of reading the spinners out of the hand is on the decline Most of the overseas batsmen if you see are trying to read wrist spinners after pitching and thats dangerous he lamentedHowever Kuldeep and Chahal have been very consistent Just check their pitch map through the 40odd games and the length has been very accurate But unlike Indian batsmen who are masters at reading the hands it is not the case with most of the overseas batsmen Harbhajan explainedI will give you an example Kuldeep and Chahal would have had a tough time if they had to bowl to Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma as both are very good players of spin bowlingBut Rohit has had his share of problems against legspinners Yes thats just in a few IPL games during initial overs of an innings If its a 50over match and a player of Rohits calibre is batting against the wrist spinners he has that quality that he will hit him to any part of the ground Whenever and wherever he wants toOr for that matter Gautam Gambhir who is another terrific player of spin bowling He was such a fabulous player as he would watch it from the hand and play late with the spin he reasonedKedar Jadhav has been Indias specialist finger spinner in the 50over format during the past two years when not injured and his low bounce makes him a useful bowler said HarbhajanKedars low bounce makes him a difficult bowler In any case he is short and with that sidearm action the balls keep very low He grips the ball in such a way that it would never hit the seam and so there wont be true bounce available to hit the deliveries through the lineThe ball will never hit the sweet spot of the bat and so the batsman will not get the required elevation he signed off