Why left-arm spinners trouble Indian batsmen so much these days

Patiala House, the 2011 movie starring Akshay Kumar, was loosely based on the life of Madhusudan 'Monty' Panesar. It was the usual Bollywood masala film, with songs, dances, and emotional drama.

If a film were to be made today based on Panesar's life, it will have to be a tragedy. The slow left-arm bowler still dreams of playing for England, but it is a long shot. He takes medication for mental health.

The 34-year-old's latest brush with international cricket was not as a player but as consultant coach, when he was engaged by the Australians before they came to tour India this year. Playing grade cricket in Sydney, Panesar was roped in for his exploits in India in 2012-13, when he took 17 wickets in three tests and England won 2-1 -- the last team to win a Test series in India.

That was when Panesar helped Steve O'Keefe, the Australian bowler, refine his bowling. The results for O'Keefe came quick, as he took 12 wickets for 70 runs in the first Test of the current series. 

Now O'Keefe may yet have a glittering career, but, at 32 years and 91 days, he has played only six Tests and may not play enough to be counted among the greats of the game. And Panesar's story will always be told with a shake of the head. But the two will always have their performances in India to be proud of. And both are slow left-arm orthodox bowlers.

These are not the only instances of left-arm spinners doing well against India in India. Derek Underwood caused our batsmen many problems in 1976-77, and so did Hedley Verity in 1933-34. But Underwood was an outstanding bowler, who ended up with 297 wickets in 86 Tests at an average below 26. Verity is the bowler who got Don Brahman out eight times, more than anyone else in international matches.

O'Keefe will struggle to be bracketed alongside Underwood or Verity, and Panesar almost certainly will never be. But the two bolster the argument that Indian batsmen are susceptible to left-arm spin. Sure, Graeme Swann took wickets alongside Panesar and Nathan Lyon stole the show in the second Test of the current series. But Panesar was the more influential back then, and O'Keefe did really destroyed India in both innings in the very first match of the series.

India has had its own share of great left-arm spinners: Vinoo Mankad, Bishan Singh Bedi, Dilip Doshi, Bapu Nadkarni, Rajinder Goel, and Padmakar Shivalkar. The last two are considered the best bowlers never to play for India because they flourished at the time of the famous spin quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Chandra, and Venkat. Others never really got the chance to shine much for India.

Venkatapathy Raju did well at home when Azhar was the captain, but faded quickly in the later years. Murali Kartik, Sunil Joshi, Rahul Sanghvi, and Nilesh Kulkarni never got much of a chance.

The 2001 Test series against Australia is remembered for Laxman's batting and Harbhajan's bowling. Few remember that each Test featured a different left-arm spinner in the Indian team: Sanghvi in Mumbai, Raju in Kolkata, and Kulkarni in Chennai.

Kartik took seven wickets in the victory over Australia in Mumbai in the 2004-05 series, but played just one more Test. It is widely accepted Kartik did not enjoy his captain Sourav Ganguly's confidence and was either used as a defensive bowler or under-bowled.

It may be a coincidence that Ganguly was the captain during the phase when Raju and Joshi faded, and three different spinners were used in the three Tests against Australia, and none of them chosen for the next series, in South Africa.

Left-arm spinners bring a certain something to an attack. They do not get prodigious turn, like right-arm leg-spinners such as Shane Warne or off-spinners such as Muttiah Muralitharan did. But they are known for the their "loop" and guile, and trouble right-hand batsmen because their natural trajectory leaves the batsman. At the same time, they are a potent LBW threat because their balls turn less and frequent straighten.

But leg- and off-spin have had bigger personalities and so-called mystery balls. Warne and Muralitharan are the two highest wicket-takers in the game. To boot, both are also flawed geniuses. The best figures in Test match history, 19 for 90, belong to Jim Laker, an off-spinner. 

Among left-arm spinners, perhaps the quirkiest was Phil Tufnell, but his average of nearly 38 in 42 Tests for England won't move mountains. Bedi was a bold and vocal captain, but never known to do drugs and never jeopardised diplomatic relations between two countries for his supposed chucking.

Instead of getting their own big, colourful personalities, the left-arm spinners ran into Ganguly. Being a left-hand batsman, he was not troubled much by their natural trajectory. But that does not mean any left-hand batsman will do well against left-arm spinners. Ganguly was an outstanding batsman with a sense of timing that few others could match. And he found the left-arm spinner really easy.

He is now a cricket administrator, but the current crop of batsmen were growing up when left-arm spinners in India were losing the hope of playing for India. So the trade may not have drawn the best talent in the game. Consequently, the batsmen may have reached the international arena without facing high-quality left-arm spin.

Well, there was Pragyan Ojha. But, again, where is he?

Sure, Ravinder Jadeja is successful, and ranked number one among bowlers jointly with Ravi Ashwin. But Jadeja's success is hardly a rebuttal to this article. It is an argument in favour of promoting genuine left-arm spinners.