Of Indian batters and forgetting the art of playing spin

India’s ally since their first-ever Test at home in 1933-34 against England was their ability to field quality spinners and their batting unit’s proficiency against spin

Behind closed doors, a decree was issued to curators around India by the Board of Control for Cricket in India circa 2011.

“They told us in as many words that we should make pitches pace-friendly,” says a curator. “We had to leave on 4 mm of grass thereafter for every domestic game. But that changes when it comes to international cricket.”

Never mind that India had just won the 2011 50-over World Cup at home, India lost eight Tests in England and Australia combined in a span of little over a year. And so, the management thought it prudent to prepare pitches that would bolster their pace reserves and also improve the quality of batters against pace. But they continued to make turners when teams came ashore.

A decade and a bit later, a glance at the pace bowling riches and batting acumen against pacers reveals that the management’s ploy worked. The team managed to win a series in Australia during the 2020-21 season and draw England in their backyard in 2021-22. But what the wise heads did not account for was how this small change would impact India’s greatest strength up until that point.

India’s greatest ally since their first-ever Test at home in 1933-34 against England was their ability to field quality spinners and their batting unit’s proficiency against spin. Over the course of the next eight decades, the Indian team had established itself as the master of spin.

Even by lofty subcontinent standards, India was so far ahead of the curve -- at least with the culture of spin -- visiting teams dreaded the assignment. Not only were Indian spinners almost always on top of their game, but even world-class spinners from opposition ranks would come up woefully short against Indian batsmen.

Now, the Indians are about as clueless as the visiting sides when it comes to playing spin. They still have quality spinners in tow, but those numbers are dwindling too. If it hasn’t happened already, the delicate art of bowling spin and playing spin will be the stuff of bar-room fables and resentful nostalgia soon unless the management reevaluates its stance.

Perhaps, the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy and their dismal batting display is enough incentive to make this change.

“I agree with you,” says a former Karnataka player and coach when asked if there has been a rapid decline in the quality of batsmanship against spin. “It’s not a good look. It took me years to master the art of playing spin. I used to be a very slow scorer when I started my cricket because I was focused on the fundamentals, I used to spend years ensuring my defence is good, and once I got a grip on the angles one needs to counter and work with, you can extend your shots a bit more.”

Now, he says, batters are insecure about their ability to keep a good ball out so they start going on the offensive without picking the right ball.

Why?

“I don’t think they play on rank turners like we used to, not as often at least,” he offers. “Once the BCCI decided to offer assistance to seamers because of their record in SENA countries, the quality of spin deteriorated. Once the quality of spin deteriorated at the domestic level, batsmen were not exposed to good spin. And they graduate to the next level without having spent enough time honing their skills against spinners.”

Amol Mazumdar, the former Mumbai stalwart with over 11,000 runs in first-class cricket, says playing spin is all about mindset and gives little credence to the impact pitches have had on batters against spin.

“I still think there are quite a few pitches in India which offer plenty of spin, especially in the western part of India,” he says. “Yes, they made some changes to the pitches to offer more to pacers, but that doesn’t mean all pitches only offer pace. Also, it’s on the batsmen to want to improve their game against spin so no one is stopping them from training for spin on pitches made to assist spin.”

WV Raman, the former Indian batter, dove deep into the nuance of playing against spin in a recent podcast, imploring batsmen to make minor tweaks to their current strategy.

The left-hander with the reputation of being one of the best players of spin says reducing stride to allow for the ball to be played under the nose, aligning the shoulder, the elbow and the wrist to give time for last-minute adjustments, and being a little less eager as a rule will allow for more success.

A look at the first three Tests of the BGT -- perhaps even home Tests over the last decade -- will reveal that batters have hardly adopted any of these strategies, methods which were once drilled into the heads of young aspirants.

The Indian team has looked out of place when defending and worse so when on the attack. Save for Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara on a good day, and the lower-order with Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, the others have been walking wickets.

This is no slight towards Nathan Lyon for he is one of the best in the business and is expected to find success on pitches here, but to walk to the crease with fear of failure is not doing them any good.

“They should spend more time playing domestic cricket,” says Mazumdar. “I don’t think international cricketers make time for it. They say our schedules are packed, but the truth is, it was packed for us too, but we knew what we had to do. As for pitches, they will find plenty of pitches in India which still turn so they can work on their game.”

“One of the things they can only learn with spending plenty of time in domestic cricket is to press the ‘delete’ button once the ball is over. They, you can see, hold onto how they played the previous ball and so that ends up dictating how you play the next delivery. You cannot bat like that, let alone play spin when it’s turning square.”

“It comes down to confidence, and that you can only get when you train for it,” he adds.

The Karnataka coach identifies another problem at the grassroots level, revealing that exposing youngsters to turf wickets very early deprives them of the challenges they would face on matting wickets.

“Matting wickets turn and bounce so you learn early in your career how to play with soft hands and make last-minute adjustments, these are the conditions you will face on red soil,” he offers. “And then you get mats which turn slow and stay low so that replicates what happens on black soil. Turf wickets don’t turn as much so it’s easy to plant your foot and play through the line.”

“That could be a problem too, and of course, you can’t ignore the effects of T20 cricket on this generation.”

It was only a matter of time before someone reduced all of Test cricket’s failings to the shortest format. The assessment isn’t entirely wrong because temperament plays a big role, but it isn’t the whole truth.

The Butterly Effect of a decision going back a decade should be given credence, as should the complacency which comes with the narrative that India are good at playing spin.

We were once. We aren’t anymore. That’s the long and short of it.