ANINDYA DUTTA TA

There is no doubting the fact that Yuzvendra Chahal is a gifted legspinner. He has the guile, the flight, the leg spin, the variations, and the chess player’s brains to bring it all together and outwit the batsman. In short, he should be the ideal bowler to add to India’s already talented bowling mix and provide competition to R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the Test team. And yet, he is not even spoken of as a contender whenever the team selection debate takes off.

So what does the future hold for Chahal?

Ashwin and Jadeja’s succession planning is crucial. Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal should ideally be the future duo that India depend. With a crucial Test series coming up Down Under, this future is perhaps closer than it has ever been.

Australian wickets are hard and bouncy and other than Nathan Lyon, most home grown tweakers from Clarrie Grimmett to Shane Warne who have done well there, have been wrist spinners. It is worth recalling that among Indian spinners, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar took 28 wickets in his only full series in Australia and Anil Kumble picked up 44 wickets in his last two sorties Down Under.

With two high class wrist spinners in Chahal and Kuldeep, India would do well to depend less on the finger spin of Jadeja and Ashwin this Australian summer and use the opportunity that the tour provides to lay the foundations for the future of Indian spin, a future that rests on the wrists of two very talented young men.

So what exactly is going on here?

Chahal made his ODI debut in June 2016 and in the two years since, he has played 25 matches picking up 45 wickets at 22.96 apiece. His partner-in-crime Kuldeep Yadav earned his call

up a year later and has played 29 matches picking up 58 wickets at 20.10.

In 26 T20IS over the past two years, Chahal has bagged 42 wickets at 18.98 apiece. Kuldeep, in a bit more than a year, has picked up 24 wickets at a cost of