Spinning in tandem

A pitch with a tinge of green was perhaps not the ideal setting for Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to play their 50th Test together. South Africa's fast bowlers wrecked India, and the duo hardly made an impact as AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis piled on the misery.

Harbhajan himself was forthright with his take on the Motera strip on offer, and indicated how home pitches should have been conducive to spin. After all, the Indian bowling line-up consisted of what perhaps is the most experienced spin pairing of all time.

Although the 50 Tests for Kumble and Harbhajan is far behind the most experienced bowling pair of all time - Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne tormented batsmen for over 100 Tests, a factor in Australia's phenomenal success - they are one of the longest-serving spins pairs in Tests.

Bowling pairs featuring in most number of Tests

Tests	Bowler	Wickets	Average	Bowler	Wickets	Average
104	Shane Warne	513	24.87	Glenn McGrath	488	21.38
95	Courtney Walsh	373	24.30	Curtly Ambrose	389	21.11
93	Shaun Pollock	377	22.61	Jacques Kallis	170	33.48
88	Muttiah Muralitharan	545	21.70	Chaminda Vaas	294	27.54
89	Courtney Walsh	315	25.70	Carl Hooper	95	47.52
79	Kapil Dev	243	31.73	Ravi Shastri	151	40.66
77	Jacques Kallis	159	32.74	Makhaya Ntini	297	28.57
70	Carl Hooper	76	47.60	Curtly Ambrose	291	21.95
63	Shaun Pollock	235	24.70	Makhaya Ntini	255	27.67
61	Wasim Akram	282	21.33	Waqar Younis	277	22.92
60	Garry Sobers	181	32.60	Lance Gibbs	237	29.00
60	Bob Willis	222	24.62	Ian Botham	254	25.67
58	Glenn McGrath	274	20.52	Jason Gillespie	210	26.27
53	Shane Warne	269	25.78	Jason Gillespie	176	28.57
52	Anil Kumble	225	27.94	Javagal Srinath	187	29.30
51	Ray Lindwall	195	22.47	Keith Miller	150	23.68
49	Andrew Flintoff	167	30.06	Matthew Hoggard	200	28.32
49	Derek Underwood	161	28.09	Tony Greig	119	31.41
49	Anil Kumble	272	26.95	Harbhajan Singh	197	32.52

Only those players who have bowled 90 balls per Test on an average have been considered.

Perhaps only one spin pair has played more Tests together than Harbhajan-Kumble; the word "perhaps" is used since the combination in question includes Garry Sobers, whose bowling styles included left-arm fast-medium, slow left-arm orthodox and slow left-arm chinaman. Sobers played 60 Tests alongside offspinner Lance Gibbs. With the Motera Test, Kumble and Harbhajan move ahead of another dubious spin combination - Derek Underwood and Tony Greig played together in 49 Tests, but Underwood could lay as much claim as to being a left-arm spinner as Greig could to being an offspinner.

Three Indian spin pairs come in next, all featuring a left-arm spinner. The first two include Bishan Bedi, who played alongside offspinner Erapalli Prasanna and legspinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar in 43 and 42 Tests, while Chandu Borde combined with the miserly left-arm spin of Bapu Nadkarni in 40 Tests.

Harbhajan wasn't too off with his suggestions on the pitch, as in the 32 home Tests together for Kumble and Harbhajan, India have won 14 and lost only five. Both average below 20 in home victories.

However, they fare far worse in away conditions, though Kumble has been the better of the two both home and away.

In the 49 Tests they played together prior to the Ahmedabad Test, Kumble and Harbhajan have been part of 20 wins, with 20 matches ending in a stalemate and nine ending in defeat. Their averages in victories are less than half of the corresponding figures in draws, an indication that when they have failed to get going, opposition bowlers too haven't been able to dismiss India twice.

While Kumble's averages 16.91 in the fourth innings of a match - with 48 wickets in 12 innings - Harbhajan only manages a third of those wickets, at an average of 37.18. The offspinner gives away more than 40 per wicket in the first, but he outdoes Kumble when it comes to averages in the third innings of a match, with both bowlers having taken 77 wickets.

While the inclusion of Harbhajan works favourably on Kumble's statistics, the same doesn't hold conversely. One prime reason for Harbhajan's better performance in the absence of Kumble has to be the 2001 home series against Australia, when India, without Kumble, turned the series on its head. Harbhajan was one of the stars in that series, with 32 wickets at 17.03 apiece in three Tests.