THE ASIA Cup showed that the Indian team suffered from a dearth of spinners in the absence of Harbhajan Singh.

Somehow, the options seemed limited! However, this is not the case as far as the talent pool of Indian spinners is concerned, though the selection option is limited because of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) ban; because it was the ICL that opened the avenue for spinners in the T20 format of the game.

One player of ICL who has been in the spotlight is Ali Murtaza, the young 20 year old spinner, who has been continuously spinning the web around the best of batsmen in the world. He has come in for special mention from players of the stature of Marvan Atapattu and Inzamam-ul-Haq, who have spoken volumes on the humongous talent the young spinner possesses.

However, this prodigal talent has not been exploited by cricket India because of the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) draconian diktat.

The best recommendation for Murtaza came from the legendary Erapalli Prasanna; according to whom, if Ali can perform in the spinners graveyard called T20 cricket, then he is absolutely ready for the 50 over format and test-cricket in the years to come.

If it were a level playing field, nobody could have guessed that out of Pragyan Ojha and Ali Murtaza, who would have merited the selection.