I wonder if you guys recall the 1996 Test series at home against South Africa -- especially the first Test, played on a typical 'dust bowl' in Ahmedabad.

South Africa needed, in the second innings, 170 to win. Sunil Joshi and Anil Kumble, you would have thought, would have been the bowlers to do the job for the home side -- but the bowler who swung the game India's way on that 'spinner's track' was a certain Javagal Srinath (11.5-4-21-6). Who was brought back into the attack when it was almost too late, and who produced a match-winning spell that still lives in memory.

I found myself thinking of that game, and a few others of the kind, throughout this Test series against New Zealand -- particularly in context of the way we have used, or not used, Harbhajan Singh.

Here is one of the best offspinners in the world. And an opposing side that typically loses it when a spinner starts marking out his bowling run-up. Yet, in innings after innings, we have delayed bringing on Bajji till very, very late.

I wonder why.

I wonder why we don't realise that a good spinner can bowl -- and bowl well -- on pretty much any surface. That in the past, we have relied on spin to win -- and not only on dust bowls either; as witness the famous Test wins in the West Indies, or the classic one at Lord's against England when a certain Bhagwat Chandrasekhar skittled out the England side on a seaming track.

Opening the day with Zaheer is understandable. Bringing on Nehra, when Zaheer had a bad opening spell, equally so. But the delay -- yet again -- in bringing on Bajji is perplexing.

As I write this, he is finally on -- but the damage has been done, almost. There is less than 100 runs to play with -- and that is reflected in the fact that the field set for his first over has just one man up close on the off, and one up close on the on.

Spin, we say, is our strength. So why is it that the minute the team gets its visa stamped for some foreign country, that strength is forgotten?

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