Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
'It's only been going downhill': Murali Kartik says standard of spinners in India 'has dropped drastically'
Former India spinner Murali Kartik has expressed concern over the lack of depth in the quality of spin bowlers in India.
Former spinner Murali Kartik has expressed concern over the lack of depth in the quality of spin bowlers in India. Kartik, who played eight Tests, 37 ODIs and one T20I for India, feels that although the spinners today are capable, they no longer possess the same art or threat as India's previous generations.
From the likes of Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar in the 1960s, Bishan Bedi in the 1970s, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan in the 1980s, Anil Kumble in the 1990s, Harbhajan Singh in 2000s to R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja now, India have always had a strong arsenal of spin bowlers, but when it come to today's era, Kartik reckons the art of spin bowling in declining.
Also Read | 'The best time to get him out': How Panesar, Anderson planned Sachin's wicket
"There are a few issues regarding this. See the quality or skill-wise, you see spin in a certain way. A spinner, as I was told when I first learned spin from Bishan Bedi, was a man that spins the ball. That's the first thing. The art of spin bowling is about pricing out wickets. For that, if you look at skills over the years, it's only been going downhill," the former left-arm spinner said on The Last Wicket Show on YouTube.
Also Read | Mohammed Siraj reveals what Ravi Shastri told him after his father's death during Australia tour
After Ashwin and Jadeja, and to some extent Washington Sundar and Axar Patel, the upcoming stock of spin bowlers in India appear slightly bleak. It is a topic that was picked up by Sivaramakrishnan, who stressed that India need to rekindle their love affair with spin bowling. In a stark contrast to the time in the early 1990s, India today boast a formidable pace attack. However, Kartik believes India no longer have the type of spinners they had during the previous eras.
"Things have changed and with that, the quality has dropped drastically. So if you ask me do we have the kind of spinners which we had, no. As I said, it's only been going down. And I've always said that many former spinners, who used to look at us when we were playing, would have been turning in their graveyards - what are these bowlers? Horrible bowlers." Kartik added.
