Ashwin and Co will only get better under Kumble: Joshi

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Seventeen years ago, an Indian left-arm spinner had a formidable South African batting line-up at its wit's end. A tri-series match in Nairobi in 1999 saw an astonishing spell of slow orthodox spin bowling as Sunil Joshi recorded figures of 10-6-6-5, seventh in the list of most economical bowling efforts in ODI history. That remained the highlight of a career in which Joshi played 15 Tests and 69 ODIs for India.

Joshi, a much-travelled coach now having worked with Hyderabad and Jammu & Kashmir and as a consultant with the Oman national team previously, reminisced about his playing days on the sidelines of his current team Assam's Ranji Trophy match against Vidarbha here in Thumba. "Nairobi was special for me. But I would say getting the Indian Test cap (in 1996) was the biggest moment in my life. Another one would be being part of that historic first-ever Test in Bangladesh, which was also the first Test India were playing under

Sourv Ganguly

's captaincy (With eight wickets, Joshi was man-of-the-match in that game in 2000)," said the former Karnataka stalwart, who has 615 first-class wickets to his name in a career that spanned 18 years.

With India going through a successful era in Test cricket, thanks mainly to their spin attack, Joshi believes the likes of Ashiwn and Jadeja are only going to get better. "Ashwin is a smart cricketer. And he's only going to improve under the guidance of Anil Kumble. Not only him, all spinners will benefit from the brains and experience of Kumble. There's no better person than him to guide them at this moment," said the former spin bowling partner of current India coach.

The advent of T20 cricket necessitated variety in bowling attacks and it's rare to see teams without least one left-arm tweaker these days. But most of them bowl a flatter trajectory compared to the spinners of the bygone era. However, Joshi sees this as natural evolution only. "It all depends on the need of the hour. In T20 cricket, it is to restrict runs and bowl more dot balls. So it is quite understandable that bowlers bowl much flatter these days. But if you look at someone like Jadeja, he bowls slower in Tests compared to limited overs," he said.

The 46-year-old doesn't see T20s as detrimental to a spinner's growth. "I don't think playing T20s affect a bowler's skills in a negative way. By playing more matches, bowlers learn to adapt to different formats. If flighting the ball is one's strength, it doesn't change whether he's playing Tests, one-day or T20s," Joshi said.

Joshi, though, admits that at the junior level, there's a dearth of spinners. "There's a shortage of spin bowlers in domestic cricket. But things are bound to improve. It helps that at the NCA, we have Narendra Hirwani as a coach. And at the grassroots level, we need to find youngsters with talent and work on them throughout the year," said Joshi.

The late '90s was a time when pinch-hitters were fashionable. Joshi was one of the designated hitmen for India and he was often promoted up the order in ODIs to give an impetus to the scoring. Reminded of those days, Joshi had a laugh. "The mindset in one-day cricket has changed. Now everyone has to attack. Earlier, teams were looking to play more aggressively during the 15-over powerplay. Now throughout the innings, they look to go after the bowling."