opening bowling with spinners?

[Gooch20]

why is that every team is opening with spin bowling in this world cup??

[TT Boy]

Aus haven't done that, have they? Also have Sri Lanka and India?

Only has really worked out for South Africa but they have also only used it for specific batsman (Gayle, KP) and not in every game. Windies use of it yesterday didn't make much sense at all given one of the England batsman is a very good player of spin and their spinner was Big Benn. Just seemed like Sammy was following the lead.

[Migara]

Well could argue that SL don't have spinners to bowl up at front as well as Aussies. Harbhajan had done it in the past so India could pull out that rabbit out of the hat at any time. I am LMAO on thinking Herath or Krezja opening the bowling. May be Randiv would have opened bowling for SL, but refusal to give selectsuckers a BJ resulted in getting dropped from the squad.

[Spark]

Oh gods. Krezja or Smith opening the bowling.

Don't do that to me again.

[tooextracool]

Yeah Benn opening today was the wrong move. The one thing Prior is good at is playing spin bowling. Certainly, on wickets like Chennai I think this is a perfectly valid option. Im not so sure if it works everywhere else.

[Daemon]

Australia should never open with spinners no matter what. Pace attack is so bloody strong.

[Himannv]

Australia should never open with spinners no matter what. Pace attack is so bloody strong.

And their spin attack is so bloody weak.

[flibbertyjibber]

So old hat this tactic, crikey NZ used it in 92 with Dipak Patel.

[salman85]

Bit of a gamble really.It's probably an invitation for the batsman to attack and lose concentration in the process,or suffociate poor spin players.If it pays off,you've done great.If it doesn't,then you're ****ed.There hasn't been a game so far where either thing has happened by a massive margin though.

[marc71178]

England 15-3 in the 5th against Robbie Peterson springs to mind.

[Uppercut]

One advantage of opening with spin is that if the spinner's decent, runs don't come at all unless the batsmen attack. Fast bowlers tend to go for singles to third man/fine leg or when a defensive shot splits the infield, spinners don't really do that. You present the opening batsmen with the choice between playing positive, potentially dangerous strokes early on and going at 1 or 2 an over. And, of course, you will often still get wickets when batsmen are just trying to block.

The new ball hasn't done much for the quicks so I see no reason why it should be unusual- but as others have said, it needs to be part of a specific plan or set of tactics rather than just being done for the sake of it.

[Daemon]

One advantage of opening with spin is that if the spinner's decent, runs don't come at all unless the batsmen attack. Fast bowlers tend to go for singles to third man/fine leg or when a defensive shot splits the infield, spinners don't really do that. You present the opening batsmen with the choice between playing positive, potentially dangerous strokes early on and going at 1 or 2 an over. And, of course, you will often still get wickets when batsmen are just trying to block.

The new ball hasn't done much for the quicks so I see no reason why it should be unusual- but as others have said, it needs to be part of a specific plan or set of tactics rather than just being done for the sake of it.

Fair point. In fact I think spinners work better against aggressive batsmen in the early overs rather than someone who likes to get his eye in with singles and such