Brought up on ragged tracks, Indian batters generally look at home against spin. Their ability to judge length, use their own reach and the crease, smother turn and play with the angles is an object of admiration for western batters who don’t necessarily possess the same exquisite level of feet movement and dexterity because of their polar opposite upbringing.
However, India didn’t live up to their spin-savvy billing in the three ODIs in Sri Lanka where they conceded as many as 27 wickets to the tweakers. As per assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, the uncharacteristic meltdown could be attributed to India paying less attention to their strong suit as conquering swing and seam has become a priority in recent times.
“One of the challenges I wasn’t expecting and I kind of overlooked is the playing of spin by Indian batters,” ten Doeschate told TalkSport Cricket. “We got undone in Sri Lanka.”
“The mindset of India has been such that they’ve been so desperate to do well overseas. The focus has moved to doing well in Australia and England so we’ve kind of let playing spin, which was always a strength of the Indian team, fall back a little bit. That’s one thing I’m looking forward to helping with, getting to that position where Indians are the best players of spin in the world again.”
In the series opener, India lost 5 for 57 after gliding to 75 without loss chasing 231. In the second ODI, they nosedived from 97/0 to 147/6 in the pursuit of 241. In the final game, a must-win clash in order to level the series, Rohit struck 31 of the 37 runs for the first wicket before India lost 6 for 45. The last in the series of catastrophic implosions in the face of spin saw Sri Lanka bag their first bilateral one-day international series win over India in 27 years with a 110-run victory.
India didn’t enjoy the rub of the green as they lost all three tosses and ended up chasing. The wear and tear on the already low and slow surfaces made batting progressively tougher, especially against the old ball with the field spread out. Although Rohit Sharma managed to bring his experience to the fore to navigate the complex conditions – he struck two fifties and got India off to fliers in every run-chase – for others the sluggish surfaces proved a tough nut to crack.
With each outing India’s frustration with the middle-over plummet grew, so much so that with the series on the line, the batting department was fortified by the inclusion of Riyan Parag in place of a second quick in Arshdeep Singh.
Rohit sincerely acknowledged the problem. ‘’It’s something we need to look at seriously, into our individual game plans. We were definitely put under pressure throughout the series.”
”On these wickets, where the pitch is slow, where some balls are turning and some are not, you have to go in with a gameplan. Come down the track, push for singles, take calculated risks, all the basics of batsmanship on slow surfaces..”
While facing the proficient Sri Lankan spinners in their own den is an almighty challenge, some of the errors India made were unforced, like Shubman Gill slog sweeping Dunith Welllalage against the spin when the scoreline read a healthy 75/0 after 12.3 overs. He was trying to up the ante after scoring 16 from 34 balls but Rohit was going great guns at the other end so Gill could’ve played percentage cricket until he found his rhythm.
Even if he ought to go harder catering to the demands of the situation, hitting with the spin mitigates the risk while improving the chances of a clean connection, as Axar Patel and Washington Sundar exhibited with their down-the-ground lofts. Obviously it’d be unfair to pin the blame of the ensuing collapse entirely on Shubman’s poor shot selection but so tiny are the margins of the game that India eventually fell a run short of the finishing line.
With his frontfoot not going anywhere Shivam Dubey was a sitting duck against Jeffrey Vandersay as the ball turned viciously to rap him on the pads. Riyan Parag shouldered arms to a zooter; the rattled timber prompting a shoulder shrug from the leggie as if saying ‘That wicket wasn’t even my doing, but I’ll take it. Thanks!’
Besides the rookie mistakes, another theme that emerged out of the dismissal patterns was the inability to read the spinners out of the hand. At various points in the series, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul struggled to pick the Lankan spinners Akila Dhananjaya, Wanindu Hasaranga and Vandersay. In fact, for the first time in his ODI career, Kohli was dismissed LBW to spinners thrice in a row.
As England realized in the 2021 Test series versus India where Axar Patel wreaked havoc predominantly with his arm balls, the delivery that holds its line becomes very effective on a raging turner. India found themselves in the same boat as the aforementioned right-handers accounted for the turn only for the ball to carry on its path and reveal the flaws in their decision-making.
The skiddy, stump-homing variation is such a grave threat in the subcontinent that Steve Smith has made protecting his inside edge his mission, even if it meant making peace with nick-behind dismissals every now and then. ‘’One that skids on to get you lbw or bowled is generally the most dangerous ball,’’ the champion batter reasoned. ‘’So being content with getting caught behind the wicket, basically to get out in a certain way, and ensuring that I am not getting beaten on the inside. For me that’s important.’’
India meet Bangladesh and New Zealand at home next, with both the teams featuring strong, well-rounded spin attacks. Ryan ten Doeschate doesn’t really have his task cut out, for India’s batting foundation against spin is rock-solid thanks to a staple diet over the years. Some clinical fine-tuning should repave the way to archetypal spin domination.
