India need a spin-bowling coach: Laxman Sivaramakrishnan

Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are currently the premier spin bowlers for Team India. While three of them are in their 30s, the former leg-spinner turned commentator, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan talked about the importance of grooming spinners for the next generation and also recommended that the BCCI should appoint a spin bowling coach to support spinners.

One might wonder why there’s a need for a spin bowling coach? Sivaramakrishnan clearly explained the factor that the men in blue are lacking. With Yuzvendra Chahal, the country's top leggie not having a limited-overs series in Australia to be proud of, and Ravindra Jadeja's injury gave the team a to worry about.

“I’ve been saying this for many years, the Indian team needs a spin-bowling coach. Kuldeep is not even playing for KKR regularly. Chahal had a bad tour of Australia. Jadeja is injured. Ashwin is 30-plus. Who is waiting in the wings to fill their boots? Who is pushing them for a place? Who is going to help Kuldeep and Chahal?” Sivaramakrishnan told SportsKeeda.

A spin-bowling coach is a necessary ingredient to succeed across all the three formats.

“Teams like Bangladesh and England have spin-bowling coaches, and the BCCI needs to identify this. There are points involved in the ICC World Test Championship, and we need to win at home. The fast bowlers are reverse-swinging the ball, and you have a good set of fast bowlers right now. But after Ashwin and Jadeja in Test matches, and Chahal in T20s?” he added.

The revival of spin bowling culture

"The reason they’re giving 375-380 runs is because of the middle overs, where the spinners are not able to control. I think the emphasis should be on spin-bowling, the revival of Kuldeep must be done at the earliest. You need to find another set of spinners who can come in," the 54-year-old said.

[With Sportskeeda inputs]