"Just For Sake Of Variation...": Muttiah Muralitharan's Blunt Take India's World Cup Squad

Two spinners will be enough in India's playing XI during upcoming World Cup, feels former Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan, who is firmly against the idea of forcibly fitting in a third specialist slow bowler just for the heck of it. India have picked three left-arm slow bowlers -- orthodox spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel along with wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav. "Only for the sake of variation you cannot play three spinners in a team. You can play only two. Jadeja will play as an all-rounder and one more can play," Muralitharan told PTI during an exclusive interview on the sidelines of a promotional event on his biopic '800'.

The world record holder with 800 Test wickets feels that Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja provides an ideal combination.

"You have to see what is the right combination is. If they play Jadeja and Kuldeep, it is okay, since you have also got an off-spinner and a wrist-spinner," Muralitharan added.

While there has been a lot of debate on exclusion of Yuzvendra Chahal, Muralitharan felt that it is the right call considering that both Kuldeep and reserve spinner Axar Patel have looked in better rhythm compared to the Haryana wrist spinner.

"I don't know the current form of (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Yuzvendra) Chahal. Do not judge (a player's) form on T20s — T20 is different and one-day is different," he added.

"You also need to highlight that Kuldeep and Axar have put in better performances than Chahal," the maestro said, adding that a bit of List A cricket could have helped Chahal.

The wiry leg-spinner was picked for both ODIs and T20Is for the tour of West Indies where he played the shortest format. However he possibly couldn't have played any domestic one-dayers as the Deodhar