Team India has managed to win just three Test series out of 18 in England in nearly 90 years. Two of them by a margin of 1-0 and the only time India managed to win more than one Test match in a series, was under Kapil Dev in 1986. Former India spinner Maninder Singh was part of that squad. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Maninder who is now active as a commentator and as a cricket expert in broadcasting, spoke at length on the upcoming Test series against England.
Q: It has always been tough to win a series in England. How confident are you about the chances of Virat Kohli’s side in 2021?
Maninder: Of course, it has been a while that we won a series in England but I am really confident of this team which can do well in difficult conditions. We saw this young team doing well in Australia (in 2020) despite someone like Virat Kohli missing the series (after the first Test match in the 4 match series). The way Ajinkya Rahane led the team, it was great to watch.
Q: Kohli has won a series in Australia in 2018 but he hasn’t won in England despite touring twice. He wasn’t captain in 2014 but his team lost 4-1 in 2018. What does he need to do differently this time?
Maninder: Whatever I have seen of Kohli I know that he is not someone who makes the same mistake again and so is the case with head coach Ravi Shastri with whom I have played a lot of cricket and know his attitude. They don’t commit the same mistakes again and nor will they allow the team. It would have been wonderful to have clinched the WTC trophy since they played splendidly well in the last couple of years leading up to the tournament. However, they lost the all important final and I am confident they must have moved on from that loss.
Q: Now, Ben Stokes has taken the sabbatical. Is it going to help India more or going to hurt England more?
Maninder: It’s a huge opportunity for someone like Ollie Robinson to impress the selectors. At the same time, it is of course going to affect a team which is going to miss someone like Stokes.
Q: Do you think India should go ahead with both spinners in the playing XI?
Maninder: India can only think of going with five specialist bowlers if both spinners play or else they will have to go with three seamers and one spinner combination. The inclusion of both (Ashwin and Jadeja) brings in a great balance because I always believe that five bowlers in playing XI is a better combination. Even if they are not very useful in the first innings, they can be more than handy in the last two days because of wear and tear even on English pitches.
Q: If there is scope to play just one spinner in the playing XI then who has got the edge?
Maninder: Ashwin. No two thoughts about that. However, he needs to be reminded time and again that he is a wonderful match-winner and he is going to win you the match for them. Trust me, he will do well because he bowled so well in the county game for Surrey. He will go into the Test series a very confident player. Only if he fails in the first couple of matches, will I go to Jadeja.
Q: Your former teammate Sanjay Manjrekar recently said that Ashwin can’t be considered an all-time great unless he wins matches on his own in the SENA (South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand) countries. Should Ashwin be judged by those yardsticks or has he done enough to be considered an all-time great no matter what?
Maninder: See, everyone has got an opinion. You can say that Ashwin has got a lot of wickets in helpful conditions but over 400 wickets in just 76 matches is a great achievement. Absolutely brilliant. Former players will always have different views on Ashwin. Sometimes a comment like this from us (the former players) can motivate a player even further. Ashwin can play well enough o make Sanjay change his mind. I am really hopeful that he will just do that. I have high regards for Ashwin. I will give you another example. When people say that some batsman are just good on flat tracks, the point is you still have to bat well and score runs on those pitches. So, I think Ashwin may bowl so well that he will ensure that Sanjay Manjrekar doesn’t put a question mark on him being an all-time great.
Q: You have seen Erapalli Prasanna, Harbhajan Singh and now Ashwin. Who has been the greatest off-spinner for India?
Maninder: One thing I will never do (is to pick one as the greatest). They all played in different eras. It is unfair to slot them as number 1, 2 or 3. Basically, if you go by numbers, that is the only way to do, but you know that Prasanna sir played along with three other great spinners like Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrashekhar and SR Venkataraghavan who shared 1000 odd wickets among themselves. Harbhajan Singh only had Anil Kumble along with him to share those 1000 odd wickets. Harbhajan has been a brilliant spinner. Ashwin hasn’t got much support from the other end for most part of his career and only in recent times he has got that kind of partners like Jadeja. I think they all are great in their own ways.
Q: Do you think it is going to be a very challenging series for Rohit Sharma as a test opener?
Maninder: It doesn’t give me that much confidence to be very honest. Rohit Shara is playing as an opener for the first time in England and it’s not going to be easy. In One-day cricket, it is easy to adapt if you are a middle order batsman. Your concentration level has to be very high all the time as an opener in England and as we saw in the WTC final game where he concentrated hard for some time and then there was a lapse in concentration, and it proved costly. You can do it for a certain period in Test cricket but when ball is seaming around with that kind of bounce it is not going to be easy for him to get many runs. We will have to wait and see. He has been a brilliant cricketer, but as of now doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.
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