Why ILT20 Suggests India Picking 5 Spinners Might Be A Mistake

Jasprit Bumrah is RULED OUT of the Champions Trophy. 

Yashasvi Jaiswal HAS BEEN DROPPED!! 

Having watched how the action unfolded at ILT20 2025, you’d naturally assume that at least this would have led to India picking an additional seamer. But that's where you are wrong.

India will be going into the Champions Trophy 2025 with just THREE SPECIALIST PACERS. Even then, you’d feel what more do you with Hardik Pandya as the fourth pacer, right? 

Let me put it down in front of you. 

One of the three specialist pacers, Mohammed Shami, is half-fit. If you remove him from the debate, India will have two pacers with a combined experience of 12 ODIs - Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana. Hardik Pandya really serves as the fourth pace-bowling option, which makes it as many as two bowlers with a fragile medical history. 

So, the situation was perfectly set up if there was one to get someone like Mohammed Siraj into the squad. After all, Siraj has been India’s best bowler in the 50-over format over the last three years (since 2022), with 66 wickets, averaging 23.30. 

But instead, the selectors went a completely different route and picked up as many as FIVE SPINNERS!

Why picking five spinners might be a big mistake?

India are playing all their Champions Trophy 2025 matches in Dubai. 

Over the past month and a half, the only tournament to have happened in Dubai is the International League T20 (ILT20). If you look at the pattern that has emerged from that tournament, then you’d be even more shocked to see that India have not just picked five spinners but might also play three of them.

Over 569 overs were bowled in Dubai throughout the ILT20, and the domination from pacers can’t be more pronounced. The pacers took 116 of the 170 wickets (68.2%), averaging just 25.8. In terms of pure numbers, on average, 5.7 wickets fell in an innings to pace. 

The quicks not only took more wickets than the spinners but maintained a far better average and struck way more often.

It isn’t that the pacers were only successful in the powerplay in ILT20 2025. The quicks averaged 30.2 in the powerplay, but as the game progressed in Dubai, they became increasingly handy. In the middle-over phase (7-15), the pacers scalped wickets at an average of 25.6. 

Towards the end, at the death (16-20), the speedsters averaged 22.4, showing why India’s decision to back five spinners might be costly. 

What happened when IPL was last hosted in Dubai?

In those two years after COVID-19, Dubai was one of the key venues for IPL’s resumption. Even then, across a large sample size (78 innings), it was pacers dominating proceedings in both editions, with them averaging just 27.1 and SR of 19.5. 62.5% of the wickets went to pacers. 

Meanwhile, the spinners could only manage to pick up 37.5% of the wickets. 

How about in ODIs at Dubai International Cricket Stadium since 2020?

Since the start of 2020, not a single ODI at the venue has involved a top-ten team. But even then, it is worth noting how the pacers have had a substantial impact and edge over the tweakers. 

The pacers have taken 210 wickets across 24 ODIs, which is 60.5% of all wickets at the venue. Out of the 14 four-wicket hauls in ODIs at the venue, 11 have been picked by pacers, proving more and more why India picking four spinners might be a mistake. 

So, then, why did India pick an extra spinner in Varun?

Varun Chakaravarthy’s form was too good to be ignored, and there’s a strong chance that India would have wanted to pick an X-factor in Bumrah’s absence. Prior to the five-match T20I series against England, Varun’s form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy was the talk of the town. 

The Tamil Nadu man picked up 18 wickets in that competition, averaging 12.16, with two five-wicket hauls, something that no bowler managed to do. 

Furthermore, his performance in the series afterwards against England in the shortest format (14 wickets @ 9.85) forced the management to fast-track him into the ODI setup. 

But the big question is whether the presence of a fifth spinner in the Indian setup is really worth it, considering you already have a wrist spinner in Kuldeep Yadav, an off-spinner in Washington Sundar and two left-arm spin options - Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. 

The inclusion of Varun in the squad only makes this puzzle more confusing.