Tales of spin

CSK offie R Ashwin. Pic/Chennai Super Kings; Piyush Chawla; MI spinner Mitchell Santner. Pic/Mumbai Indians; KKR leggie Varun Chakaravarthy. Pic/Kolkata Knight Riders

With just a day left for IPL-18 to commence, veteran India leg-spinner Piyush Chawla said spin-bowling attacks of Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians are looking strong as compared to other teams.

"If we look at it, Chennai's spin bowling department looks really good. If we talk about Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Noor Ahmed, I think Chennai are looking good. Then we can talk about KKR because Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy are both very experienced spinners.

"If we go to Mumbai Indians, there is a slight difference due to Allah Ghazanfar being injured [out of the tournament due to back injury]. But the form in which Mitchell Santner is in and Mujeeb Ur Rahman coming as Allah's replacements, these three spin departments are looking good," said Chawla, a JioStar expert, who has claimed 192 IPL wickets.

Quizzed about which spin-bowling line-ups appeared on the lighter side to him, Chawla stated it would be Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals. "If we look at RCB, it looks a little weak, as Suyash Sharma doesn't have much experience. Plus, he hasn't played that many matches. It's not that easy to bowl in Chinnaswamy, to be very honest. Then there is Krunal Pandya, who plays the role of an all-rounder."

"You do need a wicket-taking spinner in the middle overs. Krunal Pandya has certainly contained the batsmen in the last few years, but the wickets have not come that much. So I see a little bit of a weakness in the spin bowling department of RCB here.

"I won't say that the Rajasthan Royals spin bowling department is a little weak, but there are a lot dependent on overseas spinners, be it Wanindu Hasaranga or Maheesh Theekshana. So if you want to play both of them, then you will have to make some sacrifices either in the form of an overseas batter or fast bowler."

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