It has always been said that in cricket bowlers hunt in pairs. If it has been fast bowlers for the cricket-playing countries outside the sub-continent, then it has been spinners for India.
There have been some legendary bowlers whose works in tandem have become part of the cricket folklore. English pacers like Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser, Bob Willis and Ian Botham are parts of such tales. Then there has been the great combo of Dennis Lillee and Jef Thomson for the Aussies who have destroyed opposition batting line-up time and again. Initially the West Indies terrified the opponents with the raw pace of Charlie Griffith, Roy Gilchrist and Wes Hall and then there were the double pairing of Andy Roberts-Michael Holding and Joel Garner- Malcolm Marshall and at times Colin Croft also.
India have always produced great spinners. Starting from the likes of Subhas Gupte, Vinoo Mankad there has been the quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkatraghavan. After these legendary four there were many who promised a lot, but failed to deliver like Laxamn Sivaramakrishnan, Rajesh Chauhan, Venkatpathi Raju and a few others.
It was only with the emergence of Anil Kumble that India found a quality spinner who could achieve success across all frontiers. Then came along Harbhajan Singh and the two were a deadly combo creating a web of downfall for the opposition batsman. In that sense they were the last spinning duo that hunted as a pair before the appearance of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Comparisons are bound to arise in every aspect of life. Since the emergence of Ashwin and Jadeja, there have been debates as to whether they are better as a pair than Kumble and Harbhajan. Well to put it in the right perspective the four are completely different types of bowlers and comparisons shouldn’t be there. Instead one should laud the successes the quartet have achieved and the laurels they have brought for India. But the debates continue.
Orissa POST takes a look at some of the statistical highlights of the careers of the four and their achievements. It also should be stated here that Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh have played together in 20 Tests abroad, for Jadeja and Ashwin the figure is only four.
In the recently-concluded Test at Vishakhapatnam against South Africa, off-spinner Ravi Ashwin ended up with eight wickets and Ravindra Jadeja with six as India romped to a 203-run wicket. Incidentally in the process Ashwin became the quickest Indian to the 350-wicket mark in Test cricket – 66 matches. But here it will only be the comparisons between the two duos – no individual performances will be highlight.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have so far played 33 Tests together and India have won 25 games. On the other hand, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh have played 54 matches helping India to win 21 of them, approximately a 39% success rate. Ashwin and Jadeja have a success rate of close to 75% at present. Even though they are yet to play 54 Tests together, they certainly are ahead of the Kumble-Bhajji duo as far as winning Tests for India is concerned.
The Ashwin-Jadeja combo has taken 360 wickets while Kumble and Harbhajan have taken 501 wickets. In spite of the higher number of wickets, the strike rate for the former spin duo is 64.91 while that of Ashwin and Jadeja is 52.64 (strike rate denotes the number of deliveries taken to get a batsman out).
As a pair Ashwin and Jadeja have taken five wickets or more in an innings 25 times and 10 wickets in a match six times. On the other hand, Kumble and Harbhajan have dismissed opposition batsman five wickets or more 38 times and 10 wickets in a game on nine occasions. Even though Kumble and Harbhajan are ahead in this department one has to remember they played more games than the current duo.
Ashwin and Jadeja have played 29 Tests at home and India have 22 games. Harbhajan and Kumble have represented India on home soil in 34 matches winning only 14 of those. So here also Jadeja and Ashwin are far ahead of their predecessors.
In the 34 home games Harbhajan and Kumble have taken 356 wickets while the figure is 329 for Ashwin and Jadeja. But one has to remember that the Ashwin-Jadeja combo has played lesser number of Test matches at home.
As far as average and strike rates on home soil are concerned Ashwin and Jadeja have left their illustrious predecessors behind. They have an average of 21.29 and strike rate of 51.29. For Harbhajan and Kumble it is 27.25 (average) and 62.63 (strike rate).
But then stats are never tell-all facts. It is for those who have seen both the duos in action, to decide on who they will bet their money on.
Till them happy spinning
PNN