India Must Play Two Spinners, Pace Can Backfire: Ian Chappell to NDTV

Bowling has been India's Achilles heel for some time now. India have tried out a variety of combinations but somehow, has found it tough to plug the glaring holes in their bowling department. Now with the few days to go for the World Cup, MS Dhoni and the team management is struggling with injuries to their key bowlers, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

In an exclusive chat with NDTV in Sydney, Ian Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar and VVS Laxman expressed their concerns over how the listless bowling could drill a hole in India's campaign of retaining the Cup.

"I think the big area of concern is the bowling. I just don't think you can be conceding, against the better sides I think they could easily be conceding 300 runs plus and I think that's just too hard to chase down," said Ian Chappell. (Bowling Woes Bog Down India's Cricket World Cup Title Defence)

Sunil Gavaskar and VVS Laxman were worried about the bowling and agreed that the chances of India's success would lie squarely on the performance of their bowlers.

"I think the big question mark is whether they will do well as a bowling unit and it will put too much pressure on the batting unit to deliver always", said Laxman.

Ian Chappell however, maintained that India should play to their strengths and field two spinners. (India Carrying Too Many Injured Players in World Cup: Dilip Vengsarkar)

"I think India must play two spinners -- Ashwin and I really like (Axar) Patel, I like the look of him. I think you're better off to go with your strengths," Chappell said, adding that India would make a mistake if they get carried away by the Australian conditions and play extra pacers.

"I think it would be a mistake if they start going for an extra fast bowler just because Australian conditions suit fast bowlers. I think India have got to pick their best bowlers," the former Aussie skipper said.

Chappell was persistent about his theory of playing "quality" spinners because in Australia, the bigger grounds would make the batsman hit the ball cleaner as mishits would easily find the outfielders, especially in the middle overs. (Sachin Tendulkar Believes 2015 World Cup Will be Different From Past Editions)

Gavaskar backed up Chappell and explained how his 1985 World Championship winning side used spinners to neutralize the opposition. However, the former India great would have preferred a leg spinner over two left-arm slow bowlers.

"We used the spinners. We used Ravi Shastri, we used Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. And that's why I felt that maybe a leg spinner could have been handy. We have two bowlers of the same type -- Jadeja and Patel. Maybe, a Karn Sharma who can also bat down the order a little bit, would have been handy," said Gavaskar. (MS Dhoni Should Give New Ball to Mohammed Shami: Zaheer Khan)

Laxman, however, wanted Binny to play the all-rounders role, particularly for India's first game against Pakistan in Adelaide on February 15.

"For the first game at Adelaide I would definitely go with two spinners, Binny at No.7 and two fast bowlers, preferably Mohammed Shami and either of Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Ishant Sharma," Laxman remarked.

There has been speculation about India's bowling combination and a lot of hush-hush over the fitness of their key bowlers. The warm-up match against Australia on February 8 might give us a peek-a-boo into their plans but before Adelaide, India need to fix their leaky bowling unit if they want to retain the World Cup.