Adam Zampa, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson, and Glenn Maxwell have outperformed Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Washington Sundar in the limited-overs leg of India’s tour of Australia. The Indian spinners have not only found it hard to find breakthroughs but have also leaked runs, resulting in Australia getting big scores in pretty much all six matches – three ODIs and three T20Is.
Former India wicketkeeper Kiran More feels one of the main reasons behind Indian spinners’ ineffectiveness barring the first T20I has been the absence of MS Dhoni behind the stumps. More said Dhoni’s constant guidance from behind the stumps helped the likes of Kuldeep, Chahal and Jadeja a great deal.
‘‘During Dhoni’s time, he was constantly giving advice to bowlers on what length or line to bowl – albeit mostly in Hindi. Now that Dhoni is not there behind the wickets, India’s spinners are struggling – you will see Kuldeep (Yadav) or (Ravindra) Jadeja are no longer the same bowlers,” More told former India batsman WV Raman in the latter’s podcast ‘Inside Out’.
“He has done it for 10-12 years with aplomb as Virat Kohli could afford to stand in the deep, but now he has to either stand at short extra cover or mid-off to talk to the bowlers.’
Dhoni announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket in August this year. KL Rahul has been keeping wickets for India in the limited-overs series. More said a lot of teams are now appointing their keeper-batsmen as the captain after seeing the success of Dhoni.
“It will be very difficult to find another Dhoni. If you see so many countries like Pakistan, England or South Africa trying with a wicketkeeper-batsman as captain, it’s because they have seen the benefit of having someone like him behind the stumps to read the game from the best position in the ground,” he said.
