At the end of the third day's play of the first Duleep Trophy match between India Red and India Green yesterday, it looks like the spinners have adjusted well to the challenge
Karnataka's Shreyas Gopal in action during the Ranji Trophy final against Tamil Nadu at Wankhede Stadium last year
Greater Noida: There has been a lot of talk about challenges faced by batsmen and pacers during pink ball matches but not much has been said about the spinners. At the end of the third day's play of the first Duleep Trophy match between India Red and India Green yesterday, it looks like the spinners have adjusted well to the challenge.
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Karnataka's Shreyas Gopal in action during the Ranji Trophy final against Tamil Nadu at Wankhede Stadium last year
One man in particular showed that if you aren't afraid to toss the ball up, have variations and can generate enough bounce, the ball's colour won't matter. Green's leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal displayed all these qualities in abundance.
Partnership breaker
It was Gopal who broke the 240-run-stand between Abhinav Mukund and Sudip Chatterjee dismissing the latter to a tossed up ball as the batsman misjudged the length attempting a sweep, which he missed to be adjudged leg before wicket.
On the third day he showed that he has both variety and a big heart —important qualities for a spinner, as he bowled a flipper to dismiss middle-order batsman Arun Karthik. That delivery had drift and bite as Karthik failed to judge it only to become his second leg before victim. It was a well-planned dismissal because the bowler had first set him up bowling leg-spin and followed it by a googly.
He displayed the same tricks against Gurkeerat Singh, who was set and batting on 82. In the 97th over of the innings the 22-year-old got him stumped on the fourth delivery but it was a result of the first three ones he bowled to him.
He squared up Gurkeerat on the first one which the latter defended awkwardly, induced an edge on the second that fell short of short of the slip, bowled slightly short to offer a bait and on the fourth one used dip, turn and drift to get the better of him. His last two scalps that got him a fifer came in form of Akshay Wakhare and Nathu Singh as both failed to pick up his wrong one.
Though a far-fetched thought but Gopal would know that bowling like this along with a couple of big scores with the bat could grab the selectors' attention, especially, just ahead of long international season at home.
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