Turners unwelcome

There are a number of dilemmas in Bangladesh's domestic circuit. From the clubs-versus-players conflict in the Dhaka Premier League to the underprepared wickets in first-class cricket, issues have been aplenty.

Like a rolling snowball, these problems lead to several others, which eventually affect the national team in the long run.

One of the biggest issues in the national circuit today which however does not create much of a stir, is the lack of big-turning spin bowlers in the national game. Sure enough, the domestic arena has got a number of slow bowlers, but rarely do any of them extract a considerable amount of turn from the wickets.

Have a glance at the top wicket-takers in first-class cricket in Bangladesh and they are packed with slow left-armers who prefer to skid the ball or use different lengths to get their wickets and the slow and low tracks in domestic cricket tend to support them for that.

The same goes for off-spinners. The likes of Shohag Gazi and Shuvagata Hom tend to focus on their lengths rather than trying to extract much turn because that's all they need to do on wickets here.

With regards to this issue, Shakib Al Hasan last year made an interesting statement. He said that one does not really have to be a good spinner to get wickets in domestic cricket in Bangladesh. All they need to do is bowl a good line. He also pointed out that he was amazed to see the amount of turn that spinners abroad managed to extract on the flattest of wickets. “They needed to learn that art in order to survive,” he had said.

This creates an issue for Bangladeshi spinners on well-prepared international wickets and is probably the reason why slow left-armers who dominate in domestic cricket eventually struggle at international level for Bangladesh.

So even though an Abdur Razzak or a Taijul Islam does immensely well in four-day domestic cricket, they fail to show similar efficacy and sometimes even struggle to perform in Test cricket.

It has been a similar story for a number of other spinners and that's what has made life so difficult for selectors. The numbers that the bowlers generate do not often speak the truth. It can also hinder the development of Bangladeshi batsman, who are often found wanting when playing on turning tracks.

In such a scenario, the case of leg-spinner Jubair Hossain becomes all the more important. While there are a couple of leg-spinners in the age groups, Jubair happens to be the only recognised leg-spinner in Bangladesh's domestic circuit.

The reason Jubair has been consistently featuring in Bangladesh's Test team is simple. He adds variety to the bowling attack and when he bowls the right line, he can be quite threatening with his turn and well-disguised googly; and the same cannot be said about the army of slow left-armers.

But he barely got a chance in the recently concluded four-day tournaments. Coaches and selectors have gone on record stating that Jubair's accuracy is less than 50 per cent. He played just one game in the Bangladesh Cricket League which ended earlier this year and also played just one match in the National Cricket League last year.

The complaints made by the domestic coaches are similar. “Jubair gives away too many runs. We played him for one game and then decided to use other spinners because they are a lot more accurate. This is a competition after all, and we need to win,” the coach of Islami Bank East Zone said when queried about Jubair's omission.

The dilemma here is whether domestic teams should persist with Jubair and give him a chance to develop his skills or whether they should just replace him with a safe option, namely the slow left-armer.

Following the South Africa Tests last year, both Shakib and Tamim Iqbal said that Jubair has the potential to take more than 400 wickets in Test cricket.

When you have the country's leading players batting for Jubair, it is odd that those in the domestic circuit are not willing to take that risk.

New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi made his debut in Bangladesh back in 2013 and he barely threatened. Three years on, Sodhi is on his way to becoming a lethal weapon for the Black Caps. Even Australia's Adam Zampa showed how threatening he could be in the T20 World Cup. In fact, he had his best time out on the field against the Bangladeshis.

Leg-spin is a difficult craft to master and so teams around the world tend to provide them with as much importance as possible and taking a cue from such examples can only help develop Bangladesh's cricket.