Inzamam and Mickey combo was appointed almost 3 years ago and we have tried just 5 spinners across formats since then:
Yasir Shah
Bilal Asif
Shadab Khan
Imad Wasim
Mohammad Nawaz
3 of them were all rounders.
Against Srl in UAE where they were playing 3 spinners, we entered the ground with 3 fast bowlers and one spinner and repeated the same mistake in both the tests and result was 0-2 in favour of Srl.
In Asia Cup which was in UAE we just went with Shadab and Nawaz in the squad knowing that in UAE spin plays an important role and there should be an extra specialist spinner in the team in case one of them doesnt perform. In the end what was feared happened both the selected spinners didnt perform as expected and we had not other option.
Against tests in Aus team management tried to correct their mistake by selecting another spinner which looked like an unwilling or not the most thoughtful move as just for the sake of getting an off spinner they selected someone who was 33 years old and had an avg of around 32-33 before that series in FC. Countless number of spinners with much better bowling averages and recent performances were ignored, Zafar Gohar, Asghar, Kashif Bhatti etc just to give few examples only because they weren't off spinners.
This decision costed us 1 drawn game and we won the series 1-0, repeating the same mistake again against NZ where a decent spinner to support Yasir could have made a big difference in the result of 1-2 in favor of NZ.
I wont go into much critique of SA tests, however in ODI series where Ind went with two specialist spinners in Yadav and Chahal knowing that SA struggles against decent spin and they won the series we went with Imad and Shadab. We did decently in the series, while Imad is a pretty decent all rounder but against teams like SA, Eng, Aus and NZ where spin can be used as wicket taking option or wicket assists spin he isnt that much of a strike force to be the 5th option and a 2nd spinner.
For ODIs against Aus in UAE where they played two specialist spinners in Lyon and Zampa supported by Maxwell, we went with Imad and combo further deteriorated with the entrance of Yasir who averages around 34 even in List A cricket and was selected just because he was a wrist spinner.
Never understood the point of selecting much inferior spinners over deserving ones for a particular format just because they add artificial variety.
I think team management with its lack of knowledge of spin bowling (No spin bowling coach as well) and how to use it effectively as attacking option against certain teams and under certain conditions has really costed us in last 2-3 years.
