Indian cricket has had a problem for a few years now. They have stumbled upon a stop-gap solution, but it can't be used to overlook the obvious.
Problem: India’s top and middle-order are not very good at playing spin. Solution: Spinners who can bat.
Having lucked on a once-in-a-generation probability of having three world-class spinners who have a way with scoring runs, India, once again, leaned on the services of R Ashwin (37), Axar Patel (74) and Ravindra Jadeja (26) to get to 262 all out on the second day of the second Test at the Arun Jaitley stadium.
To dismiss Virat Kohli’s 44 as a mere contribution would be doing gross injustice to the quality of his knock and the circumstances in which it was crafted, but the former skipper’s wristy genius had to take a backseat to the brilliance of the 114-run eighth-wicket alliance between Ashwin and Axar.
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Actually, even Nathan Lyon’s fifer was reduced to a footnote for 177 deliveries as the spinners showed Australia that India’s tail stretches longer than it looks.
That said, Australia did manage to take a one-run lead, and added a quick 61 for 1 to end the day with a 62-run advantage, courtesy Travis Head’s unbeaten 40-ball 39.
Imagine how much worse it would have been for India had it not been for Ashwin and Axar?
The alliance, specifically the confidence with which they used their feet, deft hands and aggression when needed, starkly contrasted the ineptness displayed by ‘pure batters’.
Save for Kohli during his 84-ball stay and Rohit Sharma (32) at the top, no one had a clue how to tackle Australia’s spin trio.
Debutant Matthew Kuhnemann, last-match debutant Todd Murphy and the ever-brilliant Lyon were having a good go at the Indians with their consistency and use of natural variation on a pitch which played well yet again.
At the start, though, it looked rather bleak for the visitors wasted a couple of their reviews. However, once Lyon got KL Rahul, Rohit and Cheteshwara Pujara in quick succession, India were in a pickle pursuing Australia’s first-innings tally of 263.
Shreyas Iyer, brought in specifically to tackle spin, was unlucky in that Peter Handscomb pulled off a blinder at short leg. And so, India were four down for 66 runs and in need of help.
Enter Jadeja.
Though he only scored 26 runs, the left-hander ate up 74 balls. More importantly, he tagged along with Kohli long enough to realise 59 runs for the fifth-wicket. But, India had more problems coming their way.
After Jadeja used up a review for a plumb leg before, Kohli was next to go.
The No.4 was a bit unlucky in that the on-field umpire’s decision - a touch-and-go decision to begin with as the bat and pad seemed to make contact with the ball at the same time, and the ball was mostly headed down leg - dictated the TV umpire’s decision to adjudge him out on ‘umpire’s call’.
Kohli’s irritation didn’t dissipate even after he reached the pavilion. Understandably so because this is the most comfortable he has looked against spin in recent history.
As Kohli sat in the dressing room, breaking down his dismissal with coach Rahul Dravid, Ashwin and Axar forced their peers to learn a thing or two.
And then they turned up to bowl with Head and Marnus Labuschagne looking to dictate terms ‘proactively. Just another day at the office for Indian spinners.
Wonder what workload management enthusiasts have to say about this.
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