New Delhi: Back in the 1960s and 1970s, India’s cricketing dominance had a spin-powered engine, the legendary quartet—Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar and S. Venkataraghavan. Fast forward nearly three decades, and it feels like maybe, history is spinning back in India’s favour.
The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy tournament proved just that, with India’s spinners turning the game on its head. In a nail-biting match at Dubai International Stadium Sunday, India outclassed New Zealand by four wickets, reclaiming their crown in style.
Across five matches of the tournament, the spin unit was nothing short of lethal, bagging 26 wickets—Varun Chakravarthy leading the charge with 9 scalps in just three games, followed by Kuldeep Yadav at seven, and Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja with five each.
For years, India’s spin attack leaned on solo performances from the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. But, now, there’s a sense of stability, a core forming.
It’s time for the India’s cricket management to make the right decisions and capitalise on this trend for the spin attack to become the backbone of India’s cricketing dominance.
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Golden era of spin
The quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan and Chandrasekhar had achieved great success, particularly on subcontinental pitches where their skills were well-suited to the conditions. They were instrumental in India’s victories over major cricketing nations, including England, West Indies, and Australia.
In 1971, the Indian team’s 1-0 series win in the West Indies marked a historic milestone, with the spinners playing a key role.
In the five test matches, Bedi, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan collectively took 145 of the 181 wickets that the Indian bowlers took together.
Despite their undeniable success, the management at the time did fall short in fully harnessing the potential of spinners.
There was sometimes a lack of tactical depth in utilising these spinners to their full potential, as there were fewer matches and opportunities for consistent development in international settings.
The management’s failure to provide adequate backing in the form of sufficient tours and strategic planning limited the quartet’s ability to consistently perform at their peak on foreign soil.
Between them, they played 231 test matches and took 853 wickets.
But together, all four were part of the squad in just one test series—against England at Edgbaston in 1967.
Spinners here and there
The landscape of Indian cricket, from 1980s and 1990s onwards, saw a variety of spinners come and go, but none were able to achieve the same success as the legendary quartet.
In the 1990s, Anil Kumble became India’s premier spinner, filling the void left by the departure of the “spin quartet”.
Kumble’s perseverance, work ethic, and exceptional consistency made him one of the greatest leg spinners in history.
His career spanned two decades, and he achieved remarkable success, especially in test cricket.
Kumble became only the second man after Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a test innings, against Pakistan in Delhi in 1999. His 10 for 74—all ten came in a spell of 18.2 overs for 37 runs—swept India to their first victory over Pakistan in 23 Tests.
Kumble finished his career with 619 wickets in test matches, a record that stood as India’s benchmark for a long time.
However, Kumble was often overshadowed by the rise of aggressive fast bowlers and the ever-changing dynamics of modern cricket, which led to inconsistent opportunities for spinners in limited-overs formats.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ravi Shastri, who had transitioned from a left-arm spinner to an all-rounder, had brief success, especially in one-day internationals. However, his primary role as an all-rounder limited his impact as a specialist spinner.
Other than Kumble, there were sporadic spinners, but the Indian team seemed to lack the depth and consistency it once had in the spin department.
After Kumble and Shastri, India had to wait for decades before witnessing the emergence of another world-class spinner who could match the impact of the past generation.
There were some here and there, like Sunil Joshi, Nikhil Chopra, Murali Karthik, Vijay Bharadwaj, Nilesh Kulkarni and Harbhajan Singh.
But none could have a significant impact on the squad.
Recent successes
It wasn’t until the late 2000s that India witnessed the rise of another great spinner—Ravichandran Ashwin, the “king of carrom ball”.
Ashwin, with his records and impact, is undeniably India’s crowning jewel in spin bowling post-1990s. His arrival on the scene in 2010 heralded a new chapter for Indian spin bowling.
He was quick to establish himself as one of the best spinners in the world, excelling in both test and limited-overs formats.
As of March 2025, Ashwin has taken 537 wickets in 106 Test matches, with an average of 24.00. In 116 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), Ashwin has taken 156 wickets.
Despite his success, Ashwin has never truly received his due recognition, particularly on the global stage. His exclusion from several high-profile tours, coupled with selective preference for certain fast bowlers and the growing trend of playing more aggressive, hard-hitting cricket, has often overshadowed his importance.
His underappreciation reflects a broader issue: the struggle for spinners to gain sustained recognition in the evolving dynamics of modern-day cricket.
As the game continues to favour faster-paced, aggressive styles, the importance of spin bowling often gets diminished, depriving many great spinners of the acknowledgment they deserve.
Alongside Ashwin, the Indian side saw the emergence of Chahal, a leg-spinner who made waves in limited-overs cricket with his sharp googlies and wicket-taking ability.
His best bowling figures in a T20I series came against England in a match on February 1, 2017, where he took 6 wickets for 25 runs.
However, like many other spinners before him, Chahal has struggled to maintain consistent selection, often being dropped in favour of other options or more aggressive bowling strategies.
India has enjoyed isolated successes with spinners. But it has often failed to maintain a consistent production line of world-class spin bowlers.
New ‘spin quartet’?
The stars seem to have finally aligned for the Indian cricket team in a way that few could have imagined.
For the Champions Trophy 2025, India picked a total of five spinners, of which four played.
In the first two group matches, India deployed three spinners, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
In a daring move, Varun Chakravarthy was brought in for pacer Harshit Rana in the third match, raising the spin count to four.
Chakravarthy claimed five wickets in India’s final group stage match against New Zealand. There were rumours that the team might go back to three-spinners for the semi-final and final, but the management stuck to the four-spinner strategy. And, it turned out to be a title-winning formula.
Each of the four spinners played a crucial role, transforming the pitch into a spinning minefield for the opposition and guiding India to Champions Trophy glory.
Chakravarthy dismissed the dangerous Travis Head in the semi-final against Australia and broke a key partnership by taking Will Young’s wicket in the final against New Zealand.
Kuldeep Yadav, who had been relatively quiet up until the final clash, rose to the occasion when it mattered most, sending back Rachin Ravindra after 37 runs (29 balls) and the ever-reliable Kane Williamson.
Meanwhile, Jadeja, who bowled nine consecutive overs through the middle overs, was quick and economical.
His overs come and go, like a gust of wind, leaving batters no time to think about where to place their shots. He trapped Josh Inglis in the semi-final with Australia, stifling the run rate.
Notably, it was Jadeja, who walked in at number 8 in the final match and struck the winning runs.
Patel, too, played a key role. He had an impressive economy rate of 3.62 in the final match.
In five matches, he picked a total of five wickets, which came just in time. Against Australia, he dismissed Glenn Maxwell, who once settled is capable of hitting sky-touching shots, at a mere score of 7.
Patel also delivered with the bat. He contributed 42 runs in the group stage and an important 29 off 40 balls in the final against New Zealand.
From traditional left-arm spin to leg-spin and mystery spin, this quartet has a range to offer. Together, they strike a balance at controlling the run rate and scalping crucial wickets just in time.
But the question remains: will the management capitalise on this attack and develop it into a lethal bowling line-up, or will it once again be undermined by poor selection committee decisions?
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)