India as a cricketing nation is known to produce world-class spinners. Since the early 90s, India have been blessed with some of the best spinners to have played the game.
Spinners were the ones who would produce the bulk of the wickets before the likes of Kapil Dev and Roger Binny came into the picture. Over the years, India have produced a lot of big names in the spin department.
The pitches in the sub-continent tend to be slow and favours the spinners a lot more than the pacers. And, that is the reason why India are also known for their spin bowling combinations, who would hunt for wickets in a pack.
On that note, here’s a look at the five best spin bowling combinations India has ever had:
Prasanna and Venkataraghavan
Along with Bedi and Chandrasekhar, two other spinners namely Prasanna and Venkataraghavan were also a crucial part of the spin quartet in the 1960s and 70s. Srinivas Venkataraghavan was regarded as one of the most versatile cricketers and was known for his accuracy.
Prasanna and Venkataraghavan formed a lethal spin-bowling pair and picked a lot of wickets together. Prasanna played 49 Tests in his career and picked 189 wickets, while Venkataraghavan claimed 156 wickets in 57 Tests.
Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal
Both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are no longer India’s mainstays in the spin department. They have constantly been in and out of the side. However, they were once a formidable spin bowling pair for India in the limited-over’s side. India went into the 2019 World Cup banking on Kulcha’s spin prowess. They complimented each other perfectly and picked wickets in a pack. Together, they picked 135 wickets in 34 ODIs.
Bishan Singh Bedi and Chandrasekhar
Under the leadership of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, India had a famous spin quartet of Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar, and S Venkataraghavan. It was difficult to accommodate all four in the same playing XI but all of them made significant contributions to the team’s success.
Bishan Singh Bedi and BS Chandrasekhar were the most successful of them as a pair. They played 42 Tests together for India and picked a total of 368 wickets. In these games, both managed to pick 184 wickets each. Bedi averaged 27.22, while Chandra averaged 28.70 in these games.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took the baton of spin bowling from Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Skipper, MS Dhoni kept faith in their abilities and backed them to the hilt.
The duo continues to be a lethal pair in Test cricket. They have 475 wickets as a spin bowling pair in 42 Tests played together.
Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh
India’s leg-spinner Anil Kumar is, unarguably, the best spinner the nation has ever produced. He holds the record for picking the most wickets by any Indian spinner in the history of the game. There was one more bowler spinner who would bowl alongside him and would make up for a successful spin bowling pair. The duo bowled their side to victory on several occasions, especially in the subcontinent conditions. Their first Test match together was on 25th March 1998. They played 54 Tests together, winning 21 and losing 12. They have picked 501 wickets, of which Anil Kumble picked 281, while Harbhajan Singh claimed 220.
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