by Shashi Agarwal
Amit Mishra came into the lime light after the first edition of the IPL , during his stay with the Delhi Daredevils.Though, he made his international debut before this, he could not make an impact at the highest level.In the first edition, he had an hattrick to him name ,and was recalled for the test series against Australia. He got a chance to be in the 11 just because Kumble was injured. He made full use of it, picking up a 5 wicket haul. After Kumble announced retirement from Test cricket in the same series, Mishra’s future looked very bright as he was all set for a long International career.
—
But things were not as rosy as it looked. His career in both Test and ODI took a setback, much due to the policies of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.Mishra has suffered due to the tensions between Sehwag and Dhoni.Mishra, being preferred by Sehwag had to suffer at the hands of Dhoni, who formed a so called CSK camp in the Indian team. Once,he was dropped after a Man of the Match performance against Bangladesh.
—
Looking at his recent performances, he has performed better than other spinners both in the IPL and the International level.He has more wickets than other spinners, considering the same number of recent matches.He is perhaps the most attacking spinner in Indian cricket presently. His variations, especially his googly is something which many world class players have found difficult to pick.He has performed well in almost all the limited chances he got.Being a leg spinner, it is difficult to have more control and on bad days, he is bound to go fir runs but that doesn’t means that he should be dropped on the basis of one bad day.One other factor which is hurting his cause is the batting of other spinners. Picking a bowler because of his ability to bat makes no sense.Also Mishra is no mark with the bat.Coming at number 8, one cannot be expected to score centuries, but to be able to spend sometime at the crease and he is good enough at that.
—
Of late Ashwin has not been to his best and selectors should consider Mishra as a regular option atleast in the subcontinent,where India goes with atleast 2 spinners.If not that, there should be a rotation among the top three spinners and Mishra definitely makes the cut there.
***
