With the T20 World Cup coming up, Muttiah Muralitharan has offered his advice for the spinners. The master of the spin craft thinks that in the shortest format of the game, spinners should look to defend more than attack.

“Defending is attacking in T20 in my mind… you need to aim to go for 6 or 6.5 runs an over and if you can manage that, you will probably take a couple of wickets as well,” Muralitharan wrote in his column for the ICC.

“My experience, both as a player and a coach or mentor in T20 cricket, was that you have to approach it with a defensive mindset, whereas in ODIs or Tests, the aim is to take wickets,” he added.

The Sri Lankan legend also pointed out the significance of spinners in T20 cricket.

“Initially, most people thought that the spinners would be the victims of T20 cricket and that the batters would go after them. But it is clear now that the slower you bowl, the more difficult it is to hit.

“The spinners have become the most important bowlers and even the quicks now have to bowl slower balls and other deliveries because you want to avoid the ball coming onto the bat as much as possible,” he explained.

He, however, is not too confident about Sri Lanka’s chances in the T20 World Cup.

“The team has gone down in the last five or six years,” he said.

“Frankly speaking, we were not good enough, which is why we are in this position.”