Even Shane Warne struggled bowling leg-spin in India, but Rehan Ahmed is delivering for England
The TelegraphIndia was the land that reduced even Shane Warne, the greatest leg-spinner of all time, to despair. Subhash Gupte is the sole classical leg-spinner to have taken 100 Test wickets for India; Anil Kumble and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, bowling much faster, belong in a category of their own. After a modest 2-138 from 30 overs in Hyderabad, Ahmed’s retention in Vizag could partly be explained by England’s culture: the regime’s recognition that continuity of selection helps to play fearless cricket. The wicket for the second Test, offering more bounce and less turn than last week, also makes wrist spin more valuable: India recalled their own wrist spinner, the left-armer Kuldeep Yadav. When he ended India’s second innings by inducing Ravichandran Ashwin to poke to Ben Foakes, Ahmed had a match haul of 6-153 from 41.3 overs; Warne only took as many wickets once in nine Tests in India.