Cricket World Cup 2023: Will India start with three spinners in campaign opener?

Team India is all set to face off Australia in the their campaign opener of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 at MA Chindambaram Stadium in Chennai. This clash will be the 150th ODI match between cricketing powerhouses India and Australia. It will be important to see that what will be the playing 11 of the Indian team, writes Meenaskshi Rao

Chennai: Keeping the love for the spin that the black and brown pitch at Chepauk has developed for turn and guile in the recent past, skipper Rohit Sharma said he is not averse to playing three spinners for the opening game against Australia on Sunday.

The troika of R Ashwin, Kuldeep Kumar Yadav, and Ravindra Jadeja may well find a place in the playing 11 on Sunday with the skipper talking of a six bowler-combination, having the luxury of all-rounders like Hardik Pandya.

"Three spinners are a luxury we have. I don't consider Hardik Pandya as just a seamer. He's a proper fast bowler, who can crank up good speed. So that gives us an advantage. That gives us that luxury of playing three spinners and three seamers as well you know so there's a possibility that we can play three spinners on this pitch with three seamers as well. It gives us that balance, gives us that number eight batting option as well. We will have to come here on match day and see what the pitch looks like but yes, three spinners is definitely an option," Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said.

R Ashwin, a long-haul campaigner, is 37 years old and finds himself in this World Cup due to the injury of Axar Patel. He had consigned himself to red-ball cricket before being summoned for the World Cup, He will, thus, be adequately hungry to script his departing salvo to opposing teams, and that hunger will polish this old horse’s ability to be the strike bowler of courage. Lately, he has mellowed, but this last World Cup will be his courageous push into scalping as many as he can.

Giving him company will be left-hand Chinaman unorthodox spinner Kuldeep Yadav who has emerged as the man with the Midas touch, the man who has silently invoked fear in many a lionized batter.

On a pitch like Chepauk, he can do wonders in cutting off a run-buildup while Jadeja will be waiting in the wings to tailor another clipping. Also, he sometimes works as a lower-order batsman.

His golden freckles and diminutive frame bely his original intentions of being quick. But once he joined the Kanpur academy and put his wrist into play, he has emerged as a rare breed in modern cricket.

The pitch at the M A Chidambaram stadium is spin-friendly, especially toward the latter half of the evening. Aussie, who are known to struggle with spin, are smarting due to the absence of Ashton Agar and a somewhat loss of sting in Zampa to deal with these conditions, even though Rohit feels familiarity has done away with vulnerabilities to conditions.