NEW DELHI: Eyebrows were raised when India announced five spinners in the team for the ICC Champions Trophy. Historically, the pitches in Dubai do not overly favour spinners. However, the venue has also just got done with the month-long ILT20 league which may have left the pitches tired and more amenable to spin. Predominantly, though, India’s spinner-heavy squad was chosen to lengthen the batting lineup, TOI has learnt.
The trend emerging from head coach Gautam Gambhir’s tenure is the inclination to have more allrounders in the lineup across formats. Gambhir has been vocal about the need to bat deep. Seambowling allrounders are a rarity at the moment. Hence, Washington Sundar too has made the cut along with Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.
