“When India won in 2011, do we remember spinners getting a lot of wickets?” - Sanjay Manjrekar backs pacers to make significant impact in World Cup

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar has backed Rohit Sharma’s views that the team cannot afford to drop a pacer to accommodate a spinner in the squad, as the faster men will play a key role in the Asia Cup and World Cup.

Speaking about India’s World Cup triumph in 2011 at home, Manjrekar pointed out that the faster men did the bulk of the work, with only Yuvraj Singh making a big impact as a spinner.

India named their 17-member Asia Cup squad on Monday, August 21. While leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was dropped, the selectors did not pick any off-spinner, preferring three left-arm spinners in Kuldeep Yadav (wrist-spinner), Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.

On the Star Sports/ESPN Cricinfo’s ‘Selection Day Live’ programme, Manjrekar opined that not having an off-spinner in the squad is not a big deal.

“When India won in 2011, do we remember spinners getting a lot of wickets? It was just Yuvraj Singh in the middle that was used. People like Munaf Patel made an impact. Zaheer (Khan) led the attack. Small grounds and you see certain kind of pitches in the Test series that India plays at home. But come the World Cup, the curators will be working extra hard," he said.

“You are generally going to see flat belters; some grounds are going to be small. So your tendency is sort of to go towards the fast bowlers to control the game,” Manjrekar added.

On whether India might need a little more skill with regard to spin in the middle overs, Manjrekar said that the scenario will become clearer after the first couple of Asia Cup games.

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“Both Kuldeep and Chahal are specialist bowlers; they don’t offer anything else” - Tom Moody

Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody also backed the Indian selectors’ decision to not pick an off-spinner and drop Chahal for Axar. He said that being specialist bowlers, Chahal and Kuldeep do not offer anything with the bat.

“Both Kuldeep and Chahal are specialist bowlers. Full stop. They don’t offer anything else. They can’t bat at No. 8 and have an impact in that batting line-up to give them depth.

"I think that’s one of the things that has gone against Chahal. At the end of the day, when you are talking about no off-spinner, you’ve got Kuldeep turning the ball away from the left-handers. So, you’ve got that base covered. I don’t see a massive issue. If you had an extra spot, you may consider an off-spinner, but I just don’t think that squad needs it," Moody concluded.

India take on Pakistan on September 2 in the Asia Cup and Nepal on September 4.