Here is a trivia question for you: when did Ravindra Jadeja last represent India in a one-day international? Answer: July 6, 2017. Here is another one: when did Ravichandran Ashwin last play for his national team in an ODI? Answer: June 30, 2017.
We are therefore compelled to ask: why have India's most successful contemporary spin duo – who have taken more than 300 wickets between them – not played in the 50-overs format for the past seven months? Well, the reasons are complicated, but the short two-word answer is: wrist spin.
Now for the long-ish answer: India's 180-run thrashing at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy final last June prompted a post-mortem, which concluded that insipid bowling followed by a batting capitulation were the primary reasons why they lost. And let us face it, Virat Kohli was wrong to have asked Pakistan to bat first after winning the toss.
The post-mortem also revealed a deeper problem: Jadeja and Ashwin were just not cutting it in the limited-overs formats any more, and their fortunes in the one-day game, in particular, had seen alarming dips since the conclusion of the 2015 World Cup.
According to statistics that appeared in Scroll.in, off-spinner Ashwin's ODI bowling average of 31.93 until the 2015 event had risen to an abysmal 47.3 after it. His economy-rate (4.85 to 5.6), strike-rate (39.4 to 50.6) and wickets per innings (1.4 to 1.1) had also worsened considerably.
Slow left-armer Jadeja’s numbers were even more dire: bowling average – 33.19 to 61.58, economy-rate – 4.84 to 5.47, strike-rate – 41 to 67.5, and wickets per innings – 1.25 to 0.8.
Constant travel, excessive cricket – especially a lot of Tests – and the periodic switching of formats might surely have contributed to their slides. But it was also clear that both spinners preferred to contain rather than attack the opposition batsmen. They tended to take wickets by frustrating the batters, and not outsmarting them, a strategy that was not going to work in any given situation or bowling conditions.
But fortunately for India, the collective decline of right-armed Ashwin and left-armed Jadeja has coincided with the ascent of right-armed Yuzvendra Chahal and left-armed Kuldeep Yadav. Except that there is a key difference in their bowling styles: Ashwin and Jadeja are finger spinners, while Chahal and Kuldeep are wrist spinners.
This is a crucial distinction, because modern-day wrist spinners – especially those who are inspired by former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne and perhaps even the retired Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan – tend to attack their opponents rather than contain them.
They may find it more challenging to control the ball than the traditional finger spinners do, but they can do much more with it – such as imparting more spin on it and giving it more air.
During the past seven months, Chahal and Kuldeep have shown a hunger for wickets and a fearlessness to flight the ball – both qualities usually associated with youth – and the results are there for all to see. Chahal has taken 34 wickets in 19 ODIs at an average of 21.88, while Kuldeep has managed 28 wickets from 16 matches at 20.77.
Also heartening is the fact both spinners have been creative in finding ways to take wickets, even in South Africa where the conditions do not usually favour spinners. They have benefited from bowling slower in the air, and daring – or enticing – batsmen to charge down the track and hit them over the top. Chahal's five-wicket haul in the Centurion one-dayer was a case in point.
It is too early to make any predictions yet, and maybe this is just a phase in Indian cricket. But the manner in which this duo has impressed over the past few months suggests Jadeja, 29, and Ashwin, 31, may have kissed goodbye their chances of playing in the 2019 World Cup – incidentally to be staged in England, where India lost that Champions Trophy final.
Whether Chahal and Kuldeep have also ended the senior players' ODI careers entirely, of course, only time will tell.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
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- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Specs%20
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Lexus LX700h specs
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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Brief scores
Toss India, chose to bat
India 281-7 in 50 ov (Pandya 83, Dhoni 79; Coulter-Nile 3-44)
Australia 137-9 in 21 ov (Maxwell 39, Warner 25; Chahal 3-30)
India won by 26 runs on Duckworth-Lewis Method
Emergency
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Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
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The specs
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Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
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Details
Through Her Lens: The stories behind the photography of Eva Sereny
Forewords by Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling, ACC Art Books
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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