'Axar Patel is not an alternative spinner India should be looking for'
'For the past few years we have struggled to find quality spinners'
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is of the view that young left-arm spinner Axar Patel is not Test cricket material and, at best, "a roller of the ball", very much predictable.
He insisted that the 21-year-old spinner is "not the next big thing of Indian cricket".
"No, Axar Patel is not an alternative spinner India should be looking for. He just rolls the ball, he does not have the flight and his deliveries are very much predictable. He does not turn the ball unless the pitch is favourable. He is slightly slower than medium pace," said Gavaskar, when asked whether the youngster could be a potential Test spinner who can do well for the country.
"Yes, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, Harbhajan (Singh), Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma are the spinners India can look for, but certainly not Axar Patel," Gavaskar told NDTV, while analysing India's Test squad, which was named on Thursday, for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
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Patel has played 18 One-Day Internationals and two T20 Internationals since making his international debut last year. He has 23 wickets from 18 ODIs, for an average of 26.60 and economy rate of 4.59.
He took two wickets from as many matches in the ODI series against Bangladesh last month and five scalps in three games in the just-concluded ODIs in Zimbabwe.
Rueing that India hasn’t been able to produce many quality bowlers in the last few years, he blamed the pitches offered in the Ranji Trophy as the reason.
"For the past few years we have struggled to find quality spinners. One reason could be the kind of pitches we are offering for Ranji Trophy matches. We leave a lot of grass on these Ranji pitches and that does not help quality spinners come through," he said.
"We need to make these pitches level playing for both bat and ball. There may be grass but not a lot of grass. Early in the game, the spinners should be able to use their flight and drop the flight on the second and third days. We should prepare pitches like this," he added.
Gavaskar hailed Test captain Virat Kohli's decision to play in the India 'A'- Australia ‘A’ in Chennai ahead of the Sri Lanka series.
"It's a very good call on the part of Virat. He has not played much cricket in the last 2-3 weeks. His form was also not that good in Bangladesh for his standard. If he scores big in the India ‘A’ match, he can go with confidence in Sri Lanka."
