All-rounders in a spin

(Appeared in Playing11.com)

A leading knee surgeon, Dr Derek Bickerstaff, had a couple of years back warned that more and more fast bowling all-rounders would go into premature retirement unless the punishing international schedule was reduced.

And his prediction is coming true. The squads selected for the 2011 World Cup exposes a lack of fast bowling all-rounder option with most teams. An Angelo Mathews, Jacques Kallis, Dwayne Bravo or Shane Watson is more an exception to that rule than the norm.

And even among these pace all-rounders, many, like Kallis, are down with injuries leading up to the main event and may not be on the top of their games during the showpiece event.

And so there’s a new breed of all-rounders on the rise: the spinning all-rounder. Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Steve Smith, Robin Peterson, David Hussey, Michael Yardy, Shakib Al Hasan, Daniel Vettori, the list seems endless. And these are the cricketers whom their nations are looking to to take them to the summit at the World Cup.

World-class tweakers will be the key for a team to perform well on the turning tracks of the sub-continent. And if a country’s frontline spinner has additional support, and quality spin support at that, in the middle overs then that team definitely has an advantage in the competition.

Even teams that have traditionally brought a strong pace brigade to the sub-continent have incorporated spinning all-rounders in their squads. South Africa is the prime example of this. They have inducted Faf du Plessis and Robin Peterson in their World Cup squad at the expense of Albie Morkel and Ryan McLaren, two cricketers who have experience of having played in India and being top-class fast bowling all-rounders. If both Du Plessis and Peterson are included in the playing XI, as was the case during the just concluded ODI series against India, then the Proteas will go into a game with four spinners, with JP Duminy and Johan Botha also there in the team.

This clearly shows how the quality of the sub-continent pitches is playing games with the teams’ minds. At this time, it’s important to remember Allan Border, who won the 1987 World Cup in the Indian sub-continent with the likes of all-rounders Steve Waugh and Tom Moody. And ultimately it won’t be the team with the most spinning options that wins the trophy, but the one that utilizes its resources the best by rising to the occasion.