印度旋轉王朝斷代，六戰全敗暴露真空

阿什溫退役了。賈德賈正走向輝煌生涯的尾聲。阿克薩·帕特爾失去了鋒芒，庫爾迪普·亞達夫丟掉了魔法，瓦倫·查克拉瓦蒂不再神秘，華盛頓·桑達爾充其量只能扮演控制型投手。印度引以為傲的旋轉工廠正顯現出枯竭的跡象，后備庫突然看起來空得令人擔憂。在尋找能取三柱門的投手時，有說服力的選項寥寥無幾。

愛爾蘭系列賽和英格蘭系列賽的六戰全敗，為這支球隊的表現敲響了警鐘。在T20比賽中，第七到第十五回合常被描述為戰術核心地帶——優質的旋轉進攻正是在這里打破搭檔關系、壓低得分速率、逼迫擊球手犯錯。而印度旋轉投手群在最近幾周里，兩件事都沒能持續做到。首場對愛爾蘭的T20I，主隊在7.1回合時以51分丟掉四柱門，岌岌可危。隨后洛坎·塔克與加雷斯·德萊尼僅用44球便建立起64分的搭檔關系，徹底改變了該局的面貌。在第七到第十五回合這一預期應由旋轉投手壓制得分并取得三柱門的階段，印度僅拿到一柱門。阿克薩·帕特爾最終交出兩份三十三次跑分的成績，但兩記三柱門分別出現在第十八和第二十回合，彼時愛爾蘭早已完成重建。華盛頓·桑達爾則在單回合內漏掉19分，進一步釋放了壓力。第二場T20I沿用了相似的模板：愛爾蘭在7.3回合以48分丟掉三柱門，隨后哈里·泰克特與本·卡利茨用43球為第四柱門添加65分。本場印度唯一的專業旋轉投手阿克薩·帕特爾，四回合零柱門失28分，始終無法找到印度急需的突破口。英格蘭執行這一計劃更為冷酷。

Ravichandran Ashwin has retired. Ravindra Jadeja is nearing the end of an illustrious career. Axar Patel has lost his bite, Kuldeep Yadav his magic, Varun Chakravarthy his mystery, and Washington Sundar can only be a containing bowler at best. India's famed spin factory is showing worrying signs of running dry, and the cupboard suddenly looks alarmingly bare. In the search for wicket-taking bowlers, there are few convincing options. Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, despite bowling three no-balls in the second T20I against England and being dropped for the remaining matches, has been picked as Varun Chakravarthy's replacement for the Zimbabwe tour. Eyebrows were raised when the selectors picked 33-year-old Madhya Pradesh off-spinner Saransh Jain and Uttar Pradesh leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari, who had not played a first-class match in six years, in the India A squad for the Sri Lanka tour. TimesofIndia.com can confirm that Jain earned his selection after impressing former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh during a specialist camp for emerging off-spinners conducted at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in March. Zeeshan, meanwhile, caught the eye of head coach Gautam Gambhir in Chandigarh, where he was one of the seven net bowlers with the Indian team ahead of the one-off Test against Afghanistan. With few proven options left in the pipeline, India's spin department is looking worryingly thin.