India's Greatest Test XI: the spinners

In the build up to India's 500th Test match, against New Zealand in Kanpur next week, we want YOU to select India's Greatest Test XI.

Every day we will be asking you to vote on which players you think deserve to make the cut, from the best-ever opening batsmen, to the greatest in the middle-order, the wicketkeepers, the pacemen and the spinners.

After looking at the batting contenders as well as the keepers and fast bowlers, today we turn our attention to one of India's great strengths - their spin bowlers.

Voting for India's Greatest XI has CLOSED! Check out the results here.

• VOTE: Pick your openers in India's Greatest Test XI
• VOTE: Pick your No.3 and No.4 in India's Greatest Test XI
• VOTE: Pick your No.5 and No.6 in India's Greatest Test XI
• VOTE: Pick your wicketkeeper in India's Greatest Test XI
• VOTE: Pick your fast bowlers in India's Greatest Test XI
• VOTE: Pick your spinners in India's Greatest Test XI

Bishan Bedi

Tests: 67 | Wickets: 266 | 5wi: 14 | Ave: 28.71 | BBI: 7-98

An icon of his time, Bedi mastered the subtleties and variations of finger spin as well as anyone.

A spinner's spinner, England's great offie Jim Laker once remarked: "My idea of paradise is Lord’s in the sunshine, with Ray Lindwall bowling from one end and Bishan Bedi from the other".

Image Id: 9DFA84E0B9CB449187A90921D37A1D2C

Perhaps most impressively of all, some of Bedi's greatest achievements came away from India and out of his comfort zone; his only 10-wicket haul came - of all places for a spinner - at the WACA Ground in Perth and he also claimed bags of eight in both Christchurch and Port-of-Spain.

With a superior Test average to the likes of Kumble, Harbhajan and Prasanna, Bedi's status as an Indian spin great is unquestionable.

Bhagwath Chandrasekhar

Tests: 58 | Wickets: 242 | 5wi: 16 | Ave: 29.74 | BBI: 8-79

A dangerous leg-spinner in a dry period of wins for India in the 1960s and 1970s, Chandrasekhar's right arm - badly impacted by polio as a child - would haunt batsmen during his 15 years at the top.

Chandrasekhar bowled at impressive pace for a spinner and had the full range of tricks at his disposal, always capable of an unplayable delivery that at times left the bowler himself flummoxed.

Two of Chandrasekhar's greatest performance came in historic victories away from home; he took eight for the match in a series-clinching victory in England in 1971 and, seven years later, took a bag of 12 in India's maiden victory on Australian soil.

Wisden's Cricketer of the Year in 1972, Chandrasekhar joined the likes of Bedi and Prasanna to form a potent spin-bowling group for more than a decade.

Anil Kumble

Tests: 132 | Wickets: 619 | 5wi: 35 | Ave: 29.65 | BBI: 10-74

An unusually tall leg-spinner who possessed a flat and fast trajectory, Kumble seemingly achieved it all in the longest form of the game.

He was the first Indian spinner to break the 300-wicket mark, the second player in Test history to take all ten wickets in an innings, achieving the feat against Pakistan in 1999, while no Indian has played in as many Test wins.

In an effort West Indies batting maestro Viv Richards described as "one of the bravest things I've seen on the field of play", Kumble even bowled 14 overs with a broken jaw in Antigua in 2002.

Also handy with bat in hand, he notched a maiden century against England in 2007.

After captaining his country for the last 14 of his 132 Tests, Kumble finally hung up the boots with 619 Test wickets to his name, leaving him as India’s leading Test wicket-taker and behind only Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralidaran overall.

Vinoo Mankad

Tests: 44 | Wickets: 162 | 5wi: 8 | Ave: 32.32 | BBI: 8-52 | Runs: 2109 | Hundreds: 5 | Ave: 31.47 | HS: 231

A left-arm spinner and opening batsman, Mankad was one of the greatest allrounders India has ever produced and a shining light in the dark early years of Indian Test cricket.

Most famous for his record 413-run opening stand alongside Pankaj Roy against New Zealand in 1956, which remains an Indian record for any wicket, Mankad only tasted victory in five out of his 44 Tests as India struggled to come to grips with the international game in the 1940s and 1950s.

But he was at the forefront of their rare successes; he took 12 wickets in their first-ever win over England in 1952, and later that year produced his finest performance, albeit in a losing side.

Against England at Lord's, Mankad scored a double of 72 and 184 with the bat, coming straight to the wicket to start his second innings having bowled 31 overs earlier in the day, and finishing the match with five wickets from an incredible 97 overs.

India lost by eight wickets despite Mankad's heroics, Wisden saying his performance "must surely rank as the greatest ever done in a Test by a member of the losing side".

Erapalli Prasanna

Tests: 49 | Wickets: 189 | 5wi: 10 | Ave: 30.38 | BBI: 8-76

A master of flight and drift, Prasanna skipped five years of cricket early in his career in order to complete an engineering degree before returning in the late 1960s.

A haul of seven wickets against England in Birmingham on India's 1967 tour earnt him a more permanent place in the team and he followed up with 25 wickets in the four-Test series in Australia in 1967-68.

Behind only current offie Ravichandran Ashwin as the fastest Indian to 100 Test wickets, Prasanna achieved the feat in just his 20th match and mesmerised the world's batsmen until his final Test in 1978.

India's alert close fielders would speak of hearing a whirr on the ball as Prasanna's strong wrists sent the ball the way of the batsman, who learnt quickly that the offie's simple approach to the crease masked the venom in each delivery.

Harbhajan Singh

Tests: 103 | Wickets: 417 | 5wi: 25 | Ave: 32.46 | BBI: 8-84

A fierce competitor and a fiery character, Harbhajan was, in his pomp, one of the most feared spin bowlers in the world.

Particularly on his home turf, where his skipping approach and whippy action made him a handful on the slow, turning tracks of India.

Image Id: 522CA2CD75764CA58E32E723E08400E5

Harbhajan particularly thrived on his tussles against Australia in the Test arena and snared 32 wickets in India’s famous three-Test series against Steve Waugh’s men in 2001.

While he’s been in and out of India’s Test side in recent years, statistically Harbhajan remains India’s most prolific ever Test off-spinner.