In India’s home reboot, the need to relearn art of playing spin

Until the batters can raise their game against the turning ball, India may have to use its spin-to-win strategy in Tests with greater care

Mumbai: While working on new deliveries and variations, spin bowlers never stop practicing their stock ball. Tennis players who develop the drop shot late in their career ensure their baseline power is not compromised. India’s batters, somewhere in their quest to conquer pace in SENA countries, appear to have lost the art of playing spin.

Indian batsmen have struggled against spin against South Africa. (AFP)

For an Indian batter, countering spin would often resemble a cheat code. It was almost a given that they would out-bat the opposition, even as the home spinners would spin their web. Not any longer.

It’s not just with the current crop of batters, the decline has been slow but systemic. The clean sweep by New Zealand (0-3) last year and more recently by South Africa (0-2) only illustrates the point – an experienced batting group had no answers against Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel, and the younger lot looked equally clueless against Simon Harmer’s guile.

India’s top seven batters in the five home Tests collectively averaged under 22, with only one century.

“When we won 3-0 against England in 1993 at home, we only had to bat once,” said Pravin Amre, one of England’s many tormentors in a series that has since been famously referred to as Spinwash ‘93. “It wasn’t even appreciated. People used to laugh at us, (saying) that we are only good against spin. Now Indian batters have to learn to play spin all over again.”

Players like Amre grew up playing spin on rank turners across the maidans of Mumbai. Today, even an age-group Indian player, once scouted, gets the benefit of playing on standard pitches. Domestic pitches are less doctored, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) neutral curator in charge. Former India player and seasoned domestic hand Parthiv Patel opined during commentary that neutral curators must be dispensed with in the Ranji Trophy.

Amre disagrees. “Matches will start finishing in two days,” he said. “Also, the gains of improved batting against pace should not be lost.”

Besides, for state teams, the sole objective is to win the Ranji Trophy. Just like it is for franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL), where they don’t make strategic changes to assist national selectors’ T20 plans.

For a majority of India’s unbeaten streak of 18 series wins at home – until New Zealand broke it last year – rank turners were thrown in more as a surprise. The game plan changed completely with the arrival of the World Test Championship in 2019, more specifically with the 2021 England tour of India.

With a higher premium on wins, India, more often than not, opted for pitches that took spin from Day 1. While the experienced Indian spinners ran riot to begin with, batting averages of India’s leading batting trio – Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara – were impacted.

No wonder, Dhruv Jurel, who is among those earmarked as the future by the current establishment, was unable to live up to the billing once the level of difficulty at home pitches shot up.

“Playing on a turner is as hard as playing on a green top,” said Amre. “If our plan is to play on turners, it’s important to plan week-long pre-season camps. Before Sachin (Tendulkar) took down Shane Warne, he had put in those yards. Yes, modern schedules are busy. But you will have to find a way and relearn. There is no guarantee, but your chances of success do go up.”

Coming prepared is why South African captain Temba Bavuma stood out with his unbeaten innings of 55 in the second innings of the Kolkata Test. On a pitch offering sharp turn and considerable uneven bounce, Bavuma trusted his defense. Other South African batters, as well as the New Zealand batters last year, chose to deploy the sweeps and reverse sweeps effectively.

“There’s been a lot of emphasis in South Africa in the last 10 years on playing spin better,” AB de Villiers, former South African batter, said on R Ashwin’s YouTube channel. “That’s when they realize, the reverse sweep is not that much of a risk. More often than not your pad is outside the line. The only thing is execution. You also see it being played for a single with the sweeper present on the off side.”

The horizontal bat shots made the task of India’s spinners more difficult. In contrast, most of the home batters prefer to play spin more conventionally. Ravindra Jadeja brought out the sweep in the last innings in Guwahati, but only as a late learning curve.

Nitish Reddy is good with the reverse sweep in white-ball cricket, but the shot led to his cheap dismissal in the second innings in Guwahati. Without the volume of runs behind him, it may have left the young all-rounder in self-doubt. In India’s current batting line-up in transition, Reddy would not be the only one. None of the home batters were able to effectively use their feet either.

With India’s next home Test another year away, there appears to be no other way to reclaim lost ground without going back to the drawing board.