'I don't believe that these two can't be tried' - Harbhajan Singh bats for the inclusion of off-spinners Jalaj Saxena, Akshay Wakhare in Team India

One of the biggest achievements of Indian cricket in the past 3-4 years is how they developed a world-beating pace attack. In Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the No.1 Test side boasts of a group of pacemen who can challenge any batting unit in whichever conditions they play in.

The Men in Blue have also created enough options on the bench, as far as fast bowling is concerned, but the same cannot be said about their spin department- especially off-spin- in the longest format of the game. With the advent of T20 cricket, off-spin is steadily threatening to become a dying art, with more and more bowlers taking up leg-spin.

Harbhajan Singh, one of India’s finest off-spinner is pretty concerned with the scenario and he feels that the likes of Jalaj Saxena and Akshay Wakhare- both of whom have been toiling away for years in domestic cricket- should be given a chance in the national team, irrespective of their age.

“Jalaj Saxena and Akshay Wakhare have performed year after year at the domestic level, at times on flat tracks. I have seen Akshay closely at the Mumbai Indians nets. Age for me is just a number. I don’t believe that these two can’t be tried” Harbhajan was quoted as saying by Mumbai Mirror.

Harbhajan Singh worried about the absence of quality off-spinners in the system

The ‘turbanator’, in a recent interview to Sportstar, cautioned the authorities to act fast if they don’t want the game to lose the art of finger spin.

Singh reckoned that finger-spin is disappearing because people think that it is not suited to the modern era. He said that the trend can be seen in the lower rung of bowlers, who are almost convinced that off-spin is a dying art and that there is no place for finger-spinners in International cricket.

“If you don’t act fast the game would lose finger-spinners.  As we can see, the tradition of finger-spin is disappearing because people believe that this art is not suited to today’s cricket. You can see this trend in the lower rung of bowlers who are convinced that there is no place for finger-spinners. It is as if they are not a part of the game anymore and in any case, they can’t change their style all of a sudden”