‘Indians too experienced for Afghans’ Visiting spinners face challenge of transition
Karthik refuses to ‘harp on’ Afghan captain Stanikzai’s statement on spinners
BANGALORE: India have played maiden Tests against three other countries — Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh — but somehow it’s the side from warravaged Afghanistan, who got their first cricket lessons in Pakistan refugee camps, that are the most over-confident.
At least that is what it felt when Afghan skipper Asghar Stanikzai said his spinners are better than India’s. India stumper Dinesh Karthik though pointed out that experience matters. Not going into the nittygritty of the issue, Karthik dismissed Stanikzai’s statement adding that even someone like Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav had more experience playing day’s cricket then the Afghan spinners put together.
“Look, you have to understand we have a lot of experience. Not only Test cricket but also domestic cricket, lot of four-day matches. Clearly, all their spinners put together would not have played as many matches as say a Kuldeep Yadav would have. At the end of the day experience has a lot of value. We saw that with CSK in IPL. Experience pays,” Karthik said.
Afghanistan are banking on Rashid Khan and Mujeeb ur Rahman to compete against India with both spinners in prime form in the recent T20 series sweep over Bangladesh. Both have enough variations in their arsenal to trouble batsmen, which was evident in IPL.
Karthik said eventually they might become better in red-ball cricket too but experience is something that can’t be bought.
“I am sure in time they will be even better bowlers than when they start off. But the point is, the kind of improvement they have shown in white ball cricket has been phenomenal. There is no reason why they cannot do that in Test cricket. But I would definitely say our spinners have a lot of experience. I’m sure their players will also vouch for that. So, I wouldn’t harp too much on that statement,” Karthik said.
On Tuesday, one of the nets was blocked by the Indian spinners who bowled together along with net bowlers.