Wrong! India’s once-feared spin arsenal is drying up | Cricket News
New Delhi: Ravichandran Ashwin has retired. Ravindra Jadeja an illustrious career is nearing its end. Axar Patel has lost his bite, Kuldeep Yadav his magic, Varun Chakravarthy his mystery, and Washington Sundar can only contain the bowler at best. India’s famous spin factory is showing worrying signs of drying out, and the cupboard suddenly looks startlingly bare. In the search for wicket-taking bowlers, there are some convincing options. Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, despite bowling three no-balls in the second T20I against England and being dropped for the rest of the matches, has been picked as Varun Chakravarthy’s replacement for the Zimbabwe tour.Eyebrows were raised when the selectors chose the 33-year-old Madhya Pradesh off-spinner. Saransh Jain and Uttar Pradesh leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansariwho had not played a first-class match for six years, in the India A squad for the Sri Lanka tour.Time in India. com can confirm that Jain earned his selection after praising the former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh during a specialist camp for emerging off-spinners held at the BCCI Center of Excellence in March. Zeeshan, on the other hand, caught the eye of head coach Gautam Gambhir in Chandigarh, where he was one of the seven net bowlers in the Indian team ahead of the one-off Test against Afghanistan. With few proven options left in the pipeline, India’s spin department is looking extremely thin.The disaster in Ireland and EnglandIndia’s 6-0 loss in the T20I series to Ireland and England has alarm bells ringing over the team’s performances.In T20 cricket, over seven to fifteen is often described as the tactical heart of the game. This is where quality spin attacks can destroy partnerships, slow the scoring rate and force batters into errors. Indian spinners have not been consistent in recent weeks.
India’s Axar Patel reacts after being hit for a six in the 1st IT20 match between Ireland and India at the Civil Service Cricket Club on June 26, 2026 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In the first T20I against Ireland, the hosts were reeling at 51 for 4 in 7.1 overs. What followed was a 64-run stand off just 44 balls between Lorcan Tucker and Gareth Delany that completely changed the complexion of the innings. India managed only one wicket between overs 7 and 15, the phase where spinners are expected to squeeze in runs and pick up wickets. Axar Patel eventually finished with 2 for 33, but his two wickets came in the 18th and 20th overs, long after Ireland had rebuilt. Washington Sundar, on the other hand, leaked 19 runs in an over, easing the pressure.The second T20I followed a similar template. Ireland were 48 for 3 after 7.3 overs, but Harry Tector and Ben Calitz added 65 runs in 43 balls for the fourth wicket. Axar Patel, India’s lone specialist spinner in the match, returned 0 for 28 from four overs but could not find the breakthrough India needed.England implemented that plan even more ruthlessly. In the second T20I, England were reduced to 51 for 3 in 4.4 overs. Once again, India failed to capitalize. Jacob Bethell and Tom Banton stitched a 67-run partnership from 50 balls, taking the match.
India’s Varun Chakravarthy tries to catch
India’s spin trio of Ravi Bishnoi (0 for 60), Axar Patel (1 for 20) and Varun Chakravarthy (1 for 37) conceded 117 runs in their combined 12 overs while managing just two wickets. Crucially, India took just one wicket between overs of 7 and 15, allowing England to dictate the middle overs.The third T20I offered only marginal improvement. India claimed three wickets between overs 7 and 15, but none got past the spin. Axar Patel (1 for 49) and Varun Chakravarthy (0 for 35) combined for just one wicket in seven overs, and even came out in a crucial rebuilding phase.In the fourth T20I, England hardly had to deal with the middle-order. Chasing a modest target, they ended the contest in 13.5 overs, rendering India’s spin attack irrelevant. Axar Patel (0 for 24) and Washington Sundar (0 for 19) went wicketless while conceding 43 runs in just three overs.The fifth T20I was perhaps the most alarming. England piled on 257 for 3, with Axar Patel, India’s lone spinner, enduring the costliest spell of his T20I career, conceding 63 runs in four wicketless overs.
We have a good set of tall fast bowlers who can hit the right spots and still create opportunities with the old ball, even without much help from the wicket or the conditions.
Shubman Gill | Test and ODI captain
Not looking good in ODIsIn ODIs too, one of India’s biggest concerns ahead of the 2027 World Cup is their inability to consistently attack the middle order.The trend can be seen in recent bilateral series.Against Australia, India managed just four wickets in that round of three ODIs, while New Zealand exposed the problem further as India went wicketless in the middle overs in Rajkot and Indore, losing both matches.
India’s Kuldeep Yadav reacts after bowling a delivery during the second ODI cricket match between India and Afghanistan in Lucknow, India, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
South Africa provided some relief, with Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna sharing nine wickets in three matches.The Afghanistan series produced mixed returns, with India taking five middle wickets each in Dharamsala and Lucknow but just one in Chennai. With Kuldeep seemingly slipping down the pecking order, captain Shubman Gill believes the solution lies in tall pacers like Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and Gurnoor Brar, whose bounce creates opportunities even on flat pitches.
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“We have a good set of high-powered bowlers who can hit the right spots and still create opportunities with the old ball, even without much help from the wicket or the conditions,” Gill said after the Chennai ODI.The concern is not only about form but sequence. For decades, India could rely on a conveyor belt of bully spinners to control games across formats. Now, that production line seems to have dried up considerably. With the 2027 ODI World Cup and next year’s T20 World Cup cycle fast approaching, India’s challenge is not just to revive the current crop but to ensure that the next generation can once again turn the team around to its biggest weapon rather than its biggest weakness.
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