India’s emphatic win in the 2013 Champions Trophy had a strong foundation. That Indian team was a complete side, not just on paper, but in practice as well. The batsmen and the bowlers both clicked to win all five matches for India. The Golden Bat, awarded for most runs, went to Shikhar Dhawan and the Golden Ball, for most wickets, went to Ravindra Jadeja.
India’s batsmen repeated a similar feat in this year’s Champions Trophy. The middle order didn’t really have to be tested, because the top three did the job almost every single time. But the stark difference lay in India’s bowling, which was the reason they lost to Sri Lanka and the all-important final to Pakistan. While the two primary pacers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, did quite well in the tournament, the same cannot be said for the two primary spinners.
Ashwin and Jadeja have become a lethal combination in Test cricket. They’re the top two bowlers in the world in this format at the moment. Their T20 records are pretty good as well. But somewhere along the way, they simply stopped being effective in ODIs. Watching them in this year’s Champions Trophy, it was clear that they were bowling with the intent of keeping the runs down, and not taking wickets.
Ashwin’s ODI numbers until the 2015 World Cup aren’t reflective of his wicket-taking abilities in Test cricket, but they’re still the stats of a very good ODI bowler, one who can keep the runs down and give you a wicket or two in every game.
After this, Ashwin entered a purple patch in Test cricket. In the next two years, his wickets tally in the longest format increased by more than 200%. Obviously, the fact that he played 25 Tests in this period contributed to this, but even his average in this period became significantly better. It was over 30 until the 2015 World Cup. After that, it is 21.
However, his ODI form told a starkly different story.
Until the end of the 2015 World Cup, Jadeja too was invaluable in the Indian ODI line-up. He was the team’s genuine all-rounder, who had a massive impact in the field, could be counted on to bowl 10 overs for very few runs, and occasionally score a few runs. But he was in the team primarily for his accurate, wicket-to-wicket bowling that batsmen found very hard to get away. Trying to hit Jadeja for too many runs generally resulted in dismissals, which is ideal for a limited-overs bowler, as he either gives you tight overs or wickets.
Jadeja rose even higher than Ashwin in the Test arena since the 2015 World Cup. From being the second spinner in the Indian team, he outstripped Ashwin on the rankings table, and is currently the top-ranked bowler in the world. But his ODI form was inversely proportional to his Test form, and he stopped having any sort of impact in this form of the game.
The Champions Trophy was the starkest example of the dip in ODI form of India’s two best spinners. Between themselves, they averaged 83.2 runs a wicket in the tournament, and struck once in 85.2 balls. The primary issue wasn’t that they couldn’t take wickets, but that they weren’t really trying.
Ashwin rarely bowled what has given him the maximum success: the off-spinner. Despite being the scourge of left-handers in Test cricket, he only tried to bowl straight into their legs so as to cramp them for room. It didn’t work in his favour, as he ended up bowling several wides down the leg side, ironically defeating the purpose of the ‘tight’ line.
Jadeja often erred in length, bowling either too short or too full, making him easy pickings due to the lack of any turn.
Perhaps the fact that India have played very little ODI cricket since the 2015 World Cup could be responsible for this. Ashwin and Jadeja bowled a lot in Tests in India’s long home season, and didn’t get much practice in the shorter format. They definitely have the ability to correct whatever flaws that have crept into their bowling, as they proved in the Test series against Australia after the loss in Pune.
But is it time that India look to divide their bowlers into Test- and limited-overs specialists? Ashwin and Jadeja are invaluable in Test cricket, and will probably be at the core of the Indian attack in home Tests for years to come.
But even at their peak, they haven’t been as deadly in ODIs as white-ball specialists like Imran Tahir, Sunil Narine, Adam Zampa, and Amit Mishra. Not only will allowing them to focus on Tests increase their productivity with the red ball, it will enable India to play bowlers who excel at picking wickets in limited-overs cricket.
Amit Mishra has a stellar ODI record. He averages under 24 and picks up a wicket every five overs in this format. That’s virtually two wickets a match. Yuzvendra Chahal has also shown great promise in IPL and T20I cricket, as well as in ODI cricket, albeit against Zimbabwe. These are genuine wicket-takers with the white ball. Axar Patel has proven to be very economical, and gives the team some depth in batting, just like Jadeja.
With the World Cup only two years away, Indian cricket really needs to take a call on whether India’s two primary spinners will continue to play ODI cricket despite their diminishing success in the format, despite the availability of so many options.