By Erapalli Prasanna
Monday, August 13, 2001

Harbhajan Singh is set to play a crucial role in the coming season, especially in the Test matches against Sri Lanka. I see a lot of improvement in him, though he still tends to bowl too fast. But whenever he has encountered a slow turner, he has bowled exceedingly well.

There was a bowler called Jayaram (from Hyderabad) in my day that Harbhajan resembles. He too bowled fast offbreaks. Harbhajan is better than him though, because he turns the ball and also has that fast leg cutter-like delivery.

I first saw him about six years ago. He has certainly come on since then and his progress is good news for the Indian team and Indian cricket. I don't see any reason why he shouldn't get better in the coming years with experience and exposure.

There are two factors behind being a match-winning spinner. First, he needs to have a partner, back up either from a spinner of similar quality or from a fast bowler. In my day, we had spinners to bowl with - Chandrasekhar, Bedi, Venkatraghavan and myself complemented each other really well. Secondly, I would really like to watch him on a green-top. All along, I've seen him on wickets that have been helpful and spun in next to no time. I'd have to see him on a grassy, good wicket before I can say whether he is a genuine match winner or not.

Sarandeep Singh flights the ball more and he has all the qualities that Harbhajan possesses. I've always said, and even now I feel, that he is as good as Harbhajan. He took six wickets on debut against Zimbabwe and it's unfortunate that he hasn't had a chance to play again. We should have played them both against Australia to start with, I'm sure the result would have been far more convincing. There's no reason why you can't play two offspinners in tandem.

In our day, the spinners won matches for us abroad. Why doesn't that happen anymore?

Well, because the phasing out of the spin quartet should have taken place in a more systematic way. Somewhere during the late `70s and early `80s, there was a drastic change when it came to assessing our own strengths. We had Kapil Dev bowling alongside Dilip Doshi, Shivlal Yadav and Arshad Ayub. Once he came into the limelight, Kapil was always the main strike bowler and spin started to play a secondary role. That was where we missed the bus. Normally, no side will sacrifice its strength so rapidly. We did. Naturally, it will take us time to get back to the same level.

The best offspinners from the era in which I played were Lance Gibbs and myself. Gibbs picked up more wickets than I did and he was good, but Bedi was the best spinner I've ever seen. Of the present generation, I see Harbhajan as a promising newcomer making the grade. From the established names, I rate Muttiah Muralitharan slightly ahead of Saqlain Mushtaq.

Murali gets my nod because he turns the ball on any wicket, which is a quality that very few possess. Saqlain has tended to over employ the doosra and I think his offbreak has suffered as a result. But despite that, I rate him very highly. Of the boys I've seen, there are many that look exceedingly good in the nets but lack match temperament. My evaluation of any spinner is based on how well he can bowl to a field. Since most bowlers play under more than one captain, it is their prerogative to set the field that suits them best.

The emergence of the one-day game has also had a negative effect on spinners. They seem to think these days that if they flight the ball deceptively, they'll get hit. That's wrong. A perfect example is Muralitharan, who gives it a lot of air.

The quality of batsmanship against spin has definitely declined but only because they don't get to face enough quality spinners. As and when you start facing good spinners, you learn to adapt.

Erapalli Prasanna was an offspinner who played 49 Tests for India in the 1960s and 1970s. He took 189 wickets at 30.38 and was one of the famous quartet of Indian spinners. The others were Bishan Bedi, Srinivasarghavan Venkataraghavan, and Bhagwat Chandrasekha

Erapalli Prasanna was talking to Dileep Premachandran

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