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Follow Us9793 runs, 1183 overs, 346 wickets; spinners’ returns in IPL 2023.
The idea of this piece is to look at how Indian spinners fared in this IPL, especially those in contention for a spot in the World Cup squad.
In terms of run-scoring, batters scored at 8.3 RPO against spin, the second-highest for any season ever (2008 being the first). And spinners took a wicket every 21 balls, the best for any season.
Simply put, this IPL saw batters being much more proactive against spin.
For the sake of this analysis, we’ve gone ahead with only those Indian spinners who bowled at least 30 overs this season.
While you might see a few names that might not exactly be near the Indian team, their numbers will help us paint an overall picture of how some of our prominent names have done relative to the rest of the lot.
Yeah, batters have been much more attacking. Can we say the same about our spinners? Have they been more aggressive?
Numbers do say so.
Varun Chakaravarthy and Yuzvendra Chahal feature in the bottom right of the chart. Take risks, go for boundaries, get wickets. That’s their motto.
On the other end of this spectrum were Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. Lack of run-scoring against the DC duo could be attributed to a couple of reasons.
Both of them plied their trade predominantly in the middle overs. While Axar did bowl a fair bit in the powerplay, it was mainly against favorable match-ups. This made it trickier for such batters to go after him.
Also, there was a discernible change in the lines bowled while being defensive. Axar and Kuldeep hit the stumps around 30% more than Varun and Chahal.
While Chahal and Varun bowled wider, their modus operandi was different. The former went closer to the wide line, to lure batters into lofting the ball. The latter would attack the fourth and fifth stump line. Chahal kept the batters guessing by turning the ball either way from the same lengths.
Add the fact that DC’s home, Arun Jaitley Stadium, was more spin-friendly than other venues, the picture becomes more clear. Batters attacked Axar and Kuldeep at least 10% less than Varun and Chahal.
Homecoming might not have improved Axar or Kuldeep’s wicket tally, but that certainly wasn’t the case with a certain Super King.
Ravindra Jadeja had his best season ever, and was easily the season’s best finger spinner. He managed to pick a wicket every 17 balls, four balls quicker than the following best (R Ashwin).
That he’s good at hitting lengths consistently was something everyone was privy to. But, he’d never really showcased that side of him in the IPL.
This season, he bowled over 76% of his balls in the 4m to 6m length, more than 20% above what it was in the previous five seasons.
Having played nine games at venues that offered variable bounce (Chennai - 7, Delhi - 1, Lucknow - 1), consistently hitting good lengths made him more potent. 85% of the wickets he picked this season were of deliveries bowled in the 4m to 6m length.
This helped him be just as effective against LHBs. Regardless of them being an unfavorable matchup for Jadeja, more than 40% of his scalps were left-handers.
“Because we practice here, we know what length and what pace to bowl. That is our home advantage”, Jadeja said after winning the POTM award against Delhi Capitals at Chepauk.
A fascinating consequence of Jadeja’s metronomic bowling has been that barring the jaffa he bowled to Stoinis in Lucknow, every dismissal of his, this season, were of balls bowled on or outside off-stump.
Moving on from a current CSK core member to a former one. Ravichandran Ashwin also saw his fortunes change this season, as he was back amongst the wickets after a while.
Even in our pre-season preview, we'd clearly spoken about how important it was for Ashwin to turn up this season. His coming to form could also potentially lead to an India call-up.
But, a lot of it had to with keeping things simple. As cliched as it sounds, that's what worked for the RR offie. He stuck to his stock ball, the off-break, for 75% of his deliveries. That number is over 40% higher than what it was in the preceding five seasons. And similarly, he did not change his speeds much as well.
He himself spoke about how overdoing his variations previously helped him understand what worked and what didn't.
"I was bowling really well in Tests, and came in with good form. It is a lot more mental, I guess. I usually work very hard during the IPL. I've just taken a backseat this time, and let my bowling look after itself.
If I didn't try those variations in the last few years, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now," he said at Chepauk after helping RR breach CSK's fortress for the first time in nearly 15 years.
Going back to the aforementioned aggressive spinners, Chahal and Varun's bowling had a lot more in common than we think.
They were the only Indian spinners to bowl more than 10 overs in the final four. It comes as no surprise that they were regularly amongst the wickets.
But, Varun takes the cake because he bowled at least 20% of his overs in each of the three phases. And he had the best strike rate among Indian spinners in the powerplay (19.2) and middle overs (14.2) and was second only to Chahal in death overs (16).
Another key point; he was one of just three spinners to have bowled 40% or more deliveries that, both, turned in and away (Mayank Markande and Piyush Chawla being the others).
And he did so while bowling more than 80% of his deliveries in the 90-100 KPH range. The only spinner to do so across any speed range.
The point about his speed is relevant to this discussion. It reflects that Varun regularly mixed his variations without any change in speed or lengths. And at speeds that were quicker than the average spinner.
By his own admission, this was by choice and not chance.
“Last year, I was bowling at around 85 KPH. So, I went back and was trying out many things and I realized that once my revolutions go down, my speed goes down. So I worked on my revs and that helped get my speed up,” he said, at the post-match presentation ceremony, while talking about the changes he made to his game coming into this season.
Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Yuzvendra Chahal all had great seasons, and there’s no denying that.
And we also need to understand CSK, KKR, and RR were also teams that bowled the most overs of spin (not in that order). Clearly, the trio shone under responsibility, and that bodes well for Indian fans.
To end this discussion, Varun was consistently good across phases, regularly turned the bowl both ways and almost always showed up for his team under pressure. As fans, we couldn’t have asked for more than that. And it wouldn't be entirely wrong to say that he has been the season’s most well-rounded spinner.
Meanwhile, Chahal adds a different dimension to a bowling line-up. He is aggressive, always up for a fight, and also has the experience of donning the Indian colors at the biggest stage. Also, they're most likely going to ahead with a spin bowling all-rounder in Axar Patel, R Ashwin, or Ravindra Jadeja. A leg-spinner like Chahal and an off-spinner would complement each other well.
Ravindra Jadeja is your true blue 3-D player. Outside his bowling abilities, he gives a much-needed batting boost lower down the order, something we haven’t bothered discussing in this piece. And something the Indian team yearns for.
And Ashwin? He's is easily the most experienced of the lot. For what it's worth, he's also the only won to have won the World Cup before. His experience, coupled with what he offers off the field is something that cannot be measured in numbers. Just like Jadeja, he also adds value with the bat lower down the order.
A missing piece in the ‘Indian World Cup’ puzzle has been their spin attack. Of late, despite having given several spinners a try, the Indian team has struggled to fill these spots.
The Indian selectors have repeatedly shown their affinity for good IPL performances, while selecting players for the national side.
With the World Cup only a few months away, it will be interesting to see which way the think-tank leans towards while finalizing the squad.
