Spinners will play an important role in the India-England series, said Dilip Vengsarkar. The former chairman of the selection committee felt the Indian pitches are known to support spin bowling and something similar can be seen during the forthcoming series.

The newly-formed selection committee of Sandip Patil has not included a specialist spinner in the India A side, which is playing a warm-up game against the visitors and Vengsarkar thought there was nothing wrong with the strategy.

“To be honest, I feel it can be selectors’ strategy. They may not want to expose the spin attack,” he said.

He said the spin options are aplenty for India. “We have some quality spinners in R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha. We also have good back-up in Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla. I feel the Indian pitches tend to slow down after two days and the spinners can do their job,” Vengsarkar remarked and then warned, “But let’s not forget, England too have two quality spinners in Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar.”

Should Harbhajan be recalled? “It depends upon the form of a player. I feel at this time, Ashwin is bowling well and he is India’s No 1 spinner.” He also praised the strong batting line up of the hosts.