Narendra Hirwani is a tense man on the sidelines every time Air India Red take to the field in the ongoing Corporate trophy. As Air India Red coach and national selector, he is concerned not only about the lack of a genuine wrist spinner in his team’s ranks but also the decline of leg-spin in general.

Only two teams here have a leg-spinner in their ranks. Sairaj Bahutule (for BPCL) and Amit Mishra (for ONGC) in Visakhapatnam remain active, and this dearth of leg-spinners presents a bleak picture on Indian cricket’s shift from spin to pace.

“It’s a difficult art; it takes hard work to perfect leg-spin. I know there are not many leg-spinners playing world cricket at the moment, and I feel privileged to be one amongst them. Leg-spinners have a big role to play, even in T20 and one-day cricket. A leg-spinner has so many varieties to dismiss the batsmen, and a genuine leg-spinner will always be an asset to any team,” says Mishra.

Former India leg-spinner turned commentator L Sivaramakrishnan agrees that leg-spinners are scarcely seen. “It’s a beautiful art, but not many youngsters take it up these days. There are several reasons for that, skippers nowadays take leg-spinners as defensive options. That’s a wrong notion. Also, in India, it’s a lot about idolising; young boys look up to the Zaheer Khans and the Dhonis and want to become fast bowlers and batsmen like them. Leg-spin lacks an idol that can tempt youngsters to say it’s attractive.

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