Prasanna wants Chawla in both teams

Mumbai: Former Indian off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna says that young leg-spinner Piyush Chawla should have been selected in both teams (ODI and Test) for the tour of Bangladesh starting on May 10.

"I personally feel that Chawla should have been picked in both the squads as he looks very promising as a Test player. In fact this would have been the right opportunity for the young spinners to showcase their talent in both forms of cricket," Prasanna told Cricketnext.com on Thursday.

“Everybody knows that the One-Day cricket gives clear advantage to batsmen and it will be difficult for a 18-year-old youngster (Chawla) to prove himself in just three matches. Probably if he were to be picked in the Tests as well, he would have had a better chance of proving himself," he added.

"Moreover, Anil (Kumble) is not getting any younger and this would have been the right time to groom the two young spinners (Chawla and left arm spinner Rajesh Pawar) along with off-spinner Ramesh Powar for the future as the Indians would be up against much tougher opponents in the coming months," Prasanna, who is involved with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) at the moment, said.

When asked about what the future holds for the three young spinners – Chawla, Pawar and Powar - and would the Indian team get back to its winning ways, Prasanna, who was part of the famous ‘spinning quartet’ along with B S Bedi, S Venkatraghavan and B S Chandrashekar, replied in the positive.

“I know that Powar is really talented while Pawar has to be really good to be a consistent wicket-taker in domestic cricket even though I have not seen him bowl. But from what I have read about him in the newspapers, I get the impression that he can be molded into a match-winner provided he gets to train under an experienced spinner”, He said.

“I personally feel the tour to Bangladesh would have been the right platform for the spinners to gain self confidence before the Indian team gears up for tougher opponents in the next couple of years. I think we have a set of really talented young spinners but they need to be guided in a proper way to produce maximum results”, Prasanna, who was considered as one of the world’s best off-spinner in the 60s and 70s, said.

“Spinners take time to mature and they have to be groomed properly to be successful. Unlike fast bowlers, who can win matches with sheer pace, the spinners need to learn the trick of the trade as spin bowling is an art and to master this art the bowlers require time and I hope these bowlers get enough opportunities to prove themselves” Prasanna added.

More Headlines from News

• Shoaib Akhtar happy to take dope tests

• Pakistan hopes to keep Champions Trophy

• Pak almost ruled out as CT venue: sources

• Murali a bigger threat than Mendis: Ganguly

• Asif urges to postpone sample B test