Ranji Trophy: Sarwate, Jadeja underline left-arm spin reign

What underscores the success of left-arm spinners this Ranji season is this: the top five wicket-takers are all left-arm orthodox spin bowlers and each one of them has taken over 50 wickets.

This anecdote from the 1987 Bangalore Test between India and Pakistan has been repeated a thousand times. Pakistan spin bowlers sought Bishan Singh Bedi’s advice on how to bowl on the underprepared M Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch. The Indian spin legend advised them to just bowl at the stumps and let the surface do the rest. It worked like a dream for Tauseef Ahmed and Iqbal Qasim, who shared 18 wickets in that tense win.

Vidarbha bowler Aditya Sarwate exults after dismissing a Saurashtra batsman on Day 4 of the Ranji Trophy final.(PTI)

The strategy, it seems, has travelled far in time. When Saurashtra left-arm Dharmendrasinh Jadeja was asked after Wednesday’s play in the Ranji Trophy final about his Vidarbha counterpart Aditya Sarwate running through his team’s top-order, he attributed it to the same strategy.

“Aditya bowled a consistent line and let the wicket do everything else,” said Jadeja, who had himself a few hours earlier done the same to rattle Vidarbha, picking six wickets.

Only Sarwate, a left-arm spinner, could get a hang of his bowling, showing resistance by top-scoring with 49 to take Vidarbha to 200, setting a challenging target (206). Saurashtra were 58/5 at stumps. Of the 13 wickets that fell on the fourth day, seven went to the left-arm spin duo. The two have shared 15 of the 35 wickets to fall in the match.

What underscores the success of left-arm spinners this Ranji season is this: the top five wicket-takers are all left-arm orthodox spin bowlers and each one of them has taken over 50 wickets.

On Wednesday, when he picked his fifth five-wicket haul of the season, Jadeja moved to second in this season’s Ranji wicket-takers’ list with 59. Sarwate is fourth with 52. He can move up with five more Saurashtra wickets on offer. The others in the top five are Bihar’s Ashutosh Aman (1st with 68), Meghalaya’s Gurinder Singh (3rdwith 58) and UP’s Saurabh Kumar (5th with 51).

It is easy to dismiss Aman and Gurinder’s hauls as they played in the second-rung Plate Group against new teams lacking skill sets to tackle their spin; but the success of Jadeja, Sarwate and Kumar shows the impact of left-arm spinners and how much teams rely on them.

With Indian wickets aiding slow turn, it is a far safer option to be accurate and let the pitch do its bit. This is the template India and Saurashtra left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja too follows. Dharmendrasinh draws inspiration from him. “We would have loved to have him with us. But whenever he is here, he keeps telling me what to bowl and where to bowl.”

Former India spinner Maninder Singh, who took 10 wickets in that famous Bangalore Test, feels, “It is a coincidence the top five are left-arm spinners, but in some seasons good bowlers of one kind do come and batsmen tend to struggle. The good bit is these boys are taking wickets consistently.”