IPL 2018: Kapil Dev claims leg spinners are the mantra to success

Mayank Markande has emerged as one of the brightest talents in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Mumbai Indians leg-spinner currently holds the purple cap as he has taken 8 wickets in the first 4 matches. Another young leg-spinner, Rahul Tewatia has been brilliant for Delhi Daredevils this season. Kapil Dev believes that wrist spinners have stolen the thunder from other bowlers as they have become the most prized asset.

Leg-spinners are most successful

The former Indian captain said that every team picks bowling attack according to conditions, but most often than not, leg-spinners come out on top in the IPL. He pointed out that even India‘s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has started to bowl leg-spin to be successful.

“Every team has their leg-spinner. Even a bowler like (Ravichandran) Ashwin, he likes to bowl more leg-spin than off spin. That shows the leg-spinners are more successful than anybody else,” Kapil said as quoted by the Times of India

Difficult to pick leg-spinners

He argued that the leg-spinners are wicket-takers as batsmen find it difficult to pick them. “Can’t really put a reason, but that is a wicket-taking bowler. It is difficult and not easy (to read them) and every team loves to have a leg-spinner,” the legendary all-rounder said.

The right-arm fast bowler highlighted the fact that CSK opted to go for a leg-spinner in Karn Sharma instead of more experienced Harbhajan Singh, who is an off-spinner. “I think that is where in spinners you don’t see so many off-spinners, you don’t see left-arm spinners so much, but you see leg spinners definitely,” he added.

Kapil praised Mumbai Indians sensation Mayank Markande and said that a good leg-spinner has the ability to lift the team. The captain of the 1983 World Cup winning team further praised Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, as he lauded his consistency over the last few years.

He lamented the fact that cricket has become a batsman’s game over the last 100 years but he praised bowlers coming out with variations to tackle the domination of batsmen.

“From 100 years, it’s (cricket) a batsman’s game, it’s never been a bowler’s game even though in the last 10 years (of the IPL), so many good things have come out from the bowlers – knuckle balls and slow bouncers. T20 is (not only) for batsmen (but) is there for everybody and you need to improve your skill,” Kapil argued.

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