India's four-man spin attack at the Champions Trophy may not last much longer – but their effectiveness is beautiful and frightening, writes Naman Agarwal.
91 and 65 balls. These were the two longest periods in the New Zealand innings where no boundaries were hit. That's two stretches of more than 10 boundary-less overs. Having one of those phases usually means the batting team has fallen into a rut and needs someone to bail them out. Having two means they would almost certainly end up with an underwhelming total. That New Zealand managed to sneak up to 251-7 despite having two such spells was a product of some much-needed death-overs hitting by Michael Bracewell, and a miscalculation in managing his bowlers at the end by Rohit Sharma. Between that and the early onslaught by the in-form Ravindra though, Rohit and the Indian spinners had the New Zealand batters on a string.
Both those stretches - between overs 14.3 and 29.4, and 32.5 and 43.4 - were bowled entirely (and unsurprisingly) by spinners. In fact, India's spinners combined to send down 38 overs in total, their third-highest aggregate ever in ODIs. Bowling 76 per cent of the overs, they conceded only 57 per cent of the total runs and took five wickets, while the 12 seam overs of Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami cost 104 runs for one.
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Final, India vs New Zealand
NZ come out attacking, India attack - and defend - better
New Zealand coach Gary Stead had mentioned two days out of the final that they would have to "put their thinking caps on" to figure out ways to score against Varun Chakravarthy, who stormed into the Champions Trophy with a five-for against them last week. The result of that exercise was Ravindra putting pressure on Chakravarthy early. While he got the wicket of Will Young, Chakravarthy conceded 21 off his three overs inside the powerplay.
This was the first time Chakravarthy was forced to bowled more than one over in the first ten in ODIs and the first time a team was actively trying to take him down. That didn't deter India though, who currently boast of a spin attack that can attack, defend, or do both at will.
Kuldeep Yadav came on in the 11th over and knocked over Ravindra with a googly first ball. Easy peasy.
Kane Williamson was supposed to be the glue that held the New Zealand batting together against the Indian spinners like he did last Sunday. All he could manage was to chip a straightforward return catch to Kuldeep off the 14th ball he faced. It was the first time since 2018 that Kuldeep had taken more than one wicket inside the first 13 overs of an ODI.
Remember the prime Kuldeep years before the 2019 World Cup when he would deceive the best batters in the world in the air and off the pitch? This was him. Back in his element.
After reducing New Zealand from 57-0 in 7.4 overs to 75-3 in 12.2, the spin-quartet operated like clockwork.
As soon as the left-hand threat of Ravindra was gone, Axar Patel was brought on to accompany Kuldeep. The two continued till the 18th over before a double bowling change saw the personnel replaced, but not the idea. Chakravarthy and Jadeja took over the plan of creating wicket-taking opportunities with variations and guile from one end and tightening the noose from the other. New Zealand's first 57 runs had come in 46 balls. Their next 56 came in 104.
They managed to recover at the death, scoring 86 in the last 12 (68 in the last seven). It could have been far worse for India if not for the perfectly timed wicket of Glenn Phillips in the 38th over by Chakravarthy.
India's spin quartet - the ideal bowling partnership?
The final figures of the four spinners were perfectly reflective of their roles on Sunday. Kuldeep Yadav (2-40) and Varun Chakravarthy (2-45) took the wickets while Axar Patel (0-29 off 8) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-30 off 10) kept the runs down.
In theory, this is how bowling partnerships have almost always operated, but rarely would any of them have put this theory in as efficient practice as the Indian quartet has across the Champions Trophy.
| Player | Inns | Overs | Maidens | Wickets | BBI | Avg | Econ | SR |
| Varun Chakravarthy | 3 | 30 | 0 | 9 | 5/42 | 15.11 | 4.53 | 20.0 |
| Kuldeep Yadav | 5 | 46.3 | 0 | 7 | 3/40 | 31.85 | 4.79 | 39.8 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 5 | 42 | 1 | 5 | 2/40 | 36.6 | 4.35 | 50.4 |
| Axar Patel | 5 | 45 | 2 | 5 | 2/43 | 39.2 | 4.35 | 54.0 |
Wrist spinners have come to rule limited overs cricket primarily because they almost always have the ability to turn the ball both ways and are usually not heavily reliant on the surface to be effective. In Kuldeep and Chakravarthy, India have not one but two such bowlers (although technically Chakravarthy is more of a finger spinner).
To complement them, they have two left-arm finger spinners who can bowl with mechanical accuracy and float around in the batting order. Two of the four bowl regularly in the powerplay. All of them bowl at the death. The only thing missing in this group is an off-spinner, but Kuldeep and Chakravarthy have stock balls that go away from the left-hander any way. It's hard to improve on this on paper, and we've seen across the last week that it's hard to improve on this on the field too.
The conditions in Dubai have certainly played their part in allowing India to unleash this combination, but it would be foolish to put this collective performance down to just that. The next ODI World Cup is in South Africa, where spin is expected to play a lesser role. There's also the possibility of Jadeja retiring from the format before that, maybe even soon after the Champions Trophy. Which would mean there's a good chance that these three games remain the only ones the quartet would have played together.
It wouldn't be the first time that circumstances wouldn't allow a lethal bowling group to partner up a lot. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, and Kagiso Rabada played only one Test together. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar the same. Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins played none. India's 'original' famed spin quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi, S Venkataraghavan and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar only ever played once together.
Chakravarthy, Kuldeep, Jadeja, and Axar might individually not be at the level of some of those names, but collectively, they will go down as one of modern-day cricket's most effective bowling quartets, irrespective of whether or not they play together anymore.
