They will come in sooner rather than later: Rahul Dravid on wrist-spinners

Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have yet to get a game in the T20 World Cup, and head coach Rahul Dravid has hinted that they could come into play in the Super Eights 'sooner rather than later.' 

However, Dravid says that their inclusion against Afghanistan on June 20 (Thursday) will depend on the conditions on offer. In the five matches in Barbados at the T20 World Cup so far, the spinners have picked up under 25% of the wickets and have picked up wickets at an average of 35.4 and 28.6 deliveries apart, which are significantly worse than the pacers.

"The wrist spinners, we do understand, play a big role. We've got two really quality wrist spinners. So, certainly, I'm sure that they will come into this tournament sooner rather than later," Dravid said ahead of the Afghanistan clash.

"All the four guys that we left out in those games, to be honest, are all quality players, quality performers. Any one of them actually coming into your squad, if you were to look at it man for man, will not make your squad a weaker squad. 

"It's just that the conditions and what we felt was the requirement in that particular venue made us go with that particular combination where we felt that there wasn't a huge role for spin and it was more a pace bowlers kind of conditions. And we also wanted to ensure that we had the depth on those tricky kind of wickets if and when required. So that's what we went there with. 

Both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal played nine matches in 2023. While Chahal picked up nine wickets at 28.11 and an economy rate of 8.72, Kuldeep, on the other hand, scalped 14 wickets at 13.14 and an ER of under six. Kuldeep has played just a solitary T20I this year, while Chahal is yet to get off the mark.

"Here it might be different obviously, without giving too much away certainly it might be slightly different here we might need feel the need that we might need an extra spinner, and then certainly someone like Kuldeep or Yuzi with their quality and their skill do come into play and do become really big factors for us," Dravid continued.

"That is the thinking in which why they have been selected because we knew that conditions could be potentially different in each of the different islands or each of the different countries."

Dravid also lavished praise on Afghanistan pacers, referring to them as one of the sought-after bowlers.

"It is important for us to recognise that they have a good bowling attack all around. Even their two pacers are quite experienced, whether it's Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq have both played a lot of cricket, they both swing the ball as well. So, they've got a pretty good bowling attack, there's no doubt about it," Dravid said. 

"I think their bowlers are some of the most sought-after bowlers in this format across the world in different leagues. We understand that that is going to pose a challenge to us and we are going to have to play well and counter that. We have got the skills, and we have tried to create the balance and the depth in the squad that allows us to counter their bowling attack, not only spinners but fast bowlers as well. Counter their bowling attack, that hopefully we can get a power-pullout score or chase down whatever score they set for us."

While dew maight not be a factor, Dravid believes that wind will play a key role in terms of panning out their tactics.  "While dew may not be a factor, maybe the wind could be a factor in this place. The wind blows quite strongly from one side to the other," Dravid said. 

"The boundary sizes might be smaller on one side, bigger on one side. There's a bit of a slope. It's probably be a quicker outfield than what we experienced in New York. So, again, we'll have to adjust, we'll have to adapt. We've discussed these things to be very honest. We've had some really fruitful meetings over the last couple of days, both as a leadership group and even with the players, with quite a few individual chats as well as team chats. 

"There's a lot of intelligence in the group. It's not just us as coaches talking to the players, but so many of these players have played so many games. They have a lot of experience. We've, in fact, in our squad, we think we have seven or eight guys who captain teams regularly. So, there's a lot of intelligence, a lot of conversations, a lot of ideas that do come out and become part of the discussion.

"I've really been happy with some of the chats we've been having over the last few days and really hope we can now execute some of the things. And that's the most important thing is the ability to execute. Ideas are good, I think. We've got really good ideas and good plans. But you need to be able to execute them too, then for them to look good as well."

India are undefeated in the T20 World Cup 2024 and goes into the Super Eights after the washed-out game against Canada in Lauderhill. They have not played a game since they beat the US in New York on June 12 and will hope they do not show any signs of rustiness against a formidable Afghanistan unit.

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