T20 World Cup: Watch out for India's triple left-arm spin threat

BRIDGETOWN: The overriding theme of this T20 World Cup, from now on, is going to be spin bowling. How teams deal with spin is going to be key. Yes, there’s also a Jasprit Bumrah or a Pat Cummins who are masters of their craft — fast bowling — and can win games in all conditions, but it’s the tweakers who will call the shots.
India, in their team selection, have been quite unorthodox, to say the least.Once they landed in the West Indies, they opted to go in with three left-arm spinners, something we don’t always see teams doing.

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Captain Rohit Sharma has been adamant going into this World Cup — probably his last as captain — he won’t care for reputation and will go with instinct and current form. Hence, it’s Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav together, unless of course there are seamer-friendly conditions available, as Rohit pointed out after the win on Thursday.
Even though Jadeja, Axar and Kuldeep are left-armers, they are not necessarily the same bowlers. As for Jadeja and Axar, the release points are not the same, because the Gujarat man is taller. So the bounce and the angles that are generated are different and the use of the crease is also not the same.

Jadeja comes closer to the stumps while Axar normally prefers to go slightly wider while delivering the ball. Kuldeep, meanwhile, is a wrist-spinner who is a completely different kettle of fish. He is an out-and-out attacking option. Rohit looks to buy wickets with him, even if it is at the cost of a few runs, as was the case against Afghanistan.
Axar, who is one of the key components of this attacking formation, explained how they go about their job.
“We have played quite a bit together and we communicate well. Whoever comes to bowl first lets the other know what is working and what is not. I think that is very important when you work as a bowling unit,” Axar said.
While Kuldeep and Jadeja are the ones who are brought into action after the Powerplay is over, Axar often bowls in the first six overs as well, when nine fielders are inside the ring.

“I can bowl in the Powerplay, middle or towards the end, in the 15th or 16th overs. I know my role well and can be called by the captain in any situation. My plan is to know what the team needs at that time — if there is a need for wickets I go for it, if the choice is to defend, I try that,” Axar said.
The left-armer explained that with examples from the Pakistan game in New York, where Axar bowled a superb 16th over to turn the game around.
“In that game, I felt that if I give less runs in the 16th over, that would be very good for the team. So, basically according to the situation, I plan my bowling,” Axar said.

Jadeja is more or less similar, just that his role is slightly more restricted between the 7th and 15th overs. He has been doing it for CSK for a long time now and if he can translate his IPL performances into something similar in the World Cup, India can go from strength to strength.