The influence of captaincy has always been a subjective debate. In cricket, captains have historically received excessive credit and copped unnecessary blame depending on the result their team manages. But in a social media age, it has now become a border-line obsession to keep a camera glued on the captain and constantly rave over and […]
The influence of captaincy has always been a subjective debate. In cricket, captains have historically received excessive credit and copped unnecessary blame depending on the result their team manages. But in a social media age, it has now become a border-line obsession to keep a camera glued on the captain and constantly rave over and feed on his personality cult.
It has never been truer for Indian cricket. What was once the “Kohli cam” has now turned into the “Rohit cam”. It is not those two great cricketer’s fault, of course, just one of many perks of the times we live in.
When India won the Mohali Test, with Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin turning their team’s precarious 228/5 on a good pitch into an innings victory, the host broadcaster discussed for a lengthy period how much of an influence Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was.
Yet, for all the obsession with captaincy, the talk of leading from the front and all that, the commentators failed to properly acknowledge a moment in the game when Rohit actually exercised his influence as a captain. It involved the understated figure of Jayant Yadav, whom Rohit gave an extended spell on Day 3 when all wondered why isn’t Jadeja been given every opportunity to record his 10-fer?
Rohit could’ve easily looked to finish off the proceedings early, but he waited and ensured Jayant felt every bit as involved as his senior spin twins were. He didn’t take a wicket but bowled his 11 overs for only 21. It was a gesture of trust and care Jayant needed at that moment, striving to carve out his own space in an attack of unprecedented bowling depth. For, make no mistake, being Jayant Yadav in this Indian Test set-up is incredibly difficult.
Jayant Yadav has played only 6 Tests since his debut in 2016.
Life as a designated third spinner was always tough, but it has only gone tougher in this decade if you’re an Indian. The presence of Ashwin and Jadeja as two of India’s finest-ever has coincided with the rise in pace stocks, which means the opportunity to bowl long spells would be as rare as the opportunity to get in the XI in the first place. In Mohali, if not for the slight cracks seen on Day 1 on the batter’s frontfoot, India would’ve tilted in favour of an extra seamer in Umesh Yadav or Mohammed Siraj.
And, even if this was a dry, turning surface commanding an extra spinner, had Axar Patel been fit, he would’ve walked into this team. When Jayant lost his place to dip in form and injury after a promising debut series in November 2016 against England, India found Kuldeep and Axar as two bright third spinners for home conditions in the following years. Kuldeep falling off the radar and Jadeja’s injuries last year, opened up an opportunity for Axar and he made an excellent start to rise up in the pecking order, reducing Jayant and Kuldeep into his backups.
Currently, Jayant is ahead in the pack to Kuldeep, but once Axar is fit, he combines to form arguably India’s most lethal spin trio with Ashwin and Jadeja, offering the opposition no breathing space while further lengthening India’s batting unit. It is a luxury Indian captains of the past seldom had, definitely not to this extent. A vicious left-arm spinner on Indian pitches, Axar has owned that third spinner’s spot with 36 wickets and 5 five-wicket hauls in his first five Tests.
Apart from the astonishing start, the eye-balls Axar has generated has only further drowned Jayant’s prospect in the public imagination. While Axar is this anomaly, whose tall stature, high speeds and unrelenting accuracy accentuate the impact of his indecipherable arm-ball from the conventional away spinner, Jayant is your traditional, throwback-to-the-past classical off-spinner, who gives the ball revs, loop and flight. Playing on green mambas in Lahli for Haryana has developed Jayant into an off-spinner who beats batters in the air, not so much with the turn off the deck.
Jayant Yadav is a classical spinner in times of lower trajectories and high speeds.
But even if he sneaks in because of an Axar Patel injury, Jayant have to then overcome the imposing presence of Ashwin to get noticed. It becomes easy as a viewer to diss on Jayant if he gets smashed for a boundary in a rare spell after having just seen Ashwin yield his magic around the batter an over before. Consciously or subconsciously, we would compare him with Ashwin and look down on Jayant, not recognising Ashwin has become the bowler he is after 85 Tests. Jayant has played 6.
In a such a set-up, the easiest thing is to feel bogged down, intimidated and lose faith on your abilities. But in his little career so far, Jayant Yadav has shown he is instead relishing the presence of a rich attack around him and playing his part in shutting down the door on the opposition at every possible opportunity. It is what stood out through his solid allround display against England all those years back. Jayant took only 9 wickets in his three Tests and compiled 221 runs lower down the order. But numbers don’t quite do justice to how he kept the opposition at bay in crucial moments, allowing India to maintain ascendancy in Vizag, Mohali and Mumbai.
The record hundred in the Mumbai Test – which remains the only century by an Indian Test No.9 – would be most fresh in the Indian fans’ memories. But within the same Test, Jayant produced a delivery to Joe Root, which offered an early example of what the off-spinner is about. Till that point, Root was sweeping Ashwin and Jadeja like a dream in the second-innings on Day 4 and threatening to play England’s saviour in the Test.
Jayant came and produced a rare ball, doing the great batter with one that was quick and flat enough to play on the backfoot and yet full enough in where it eventually pitched to draw you to the frontfoot. By the time, Root deciphered the whereabouts of this exceptional delivery, he was back in the shed LBW off 77. England’s fight was over in one moment of brilliance from India’s third-spinner.
The memories and the essence of that England series should inspire Jayant, who needs his captains to keep their senior pros waiting for their spells and show him all the trust and empathy they have. As Ashwin said, India need to look after Jayant Yadav and his kind, for not so long from now the two spin greats will be gone. This team will need new match-winners.
