Credit: DH Photo
Once renowned for playing spin, Indian batsmen now are often found struggling against the turning ball, be it Tests or one-dayers. Once dubbed Tigers at home, a near-unshakable force, India lost 3-0 to New Zealand in 2024 and 2-0 to South Africa last year – both in Tests.
This month, they lost 2-1 to New Zealand in the ODI series – first time they suffered a series defeat against the Kiwis in 50-over bilateral rubbers. So why has the current generation lost the art of playing spin? Former India coach Rahul Dravid, one of the greatest batters of all time, blamed it on the lack of turnaround time between formats.
“One of the things I’ve noticed even as a coach, especially the guys who are playing all the three formats, they’re just moving from one format to the other all the time,” Dravid said on Tuesday at an event celebrating the book on Rohit Sharma ‘The Rise of the Hitman’ by senior cricket journalist R Kaushik.
“We would make it to a Test series (about) three or four days before the (first) game. When we started practising for the Test match, we realised that the last time some of us played red-ball cricket was four or five months ago. Whereas in my generation, there were only two formats in the game. I remember having the whole month preparing for a Test series.
“So, I think, that’s becoming really a challenge. How do you find the time to be able to develop some of the skills that are hard? I think Shubman (Gill) has kind of alluded to it a little bit just recently. Because I think he’s the one who’s experienced that, he’s the one who’s actually played recently for us in all of the formats.”
The T20 World Cup is scheduled to start on February 8 where Indians are the favourites to defend the crown. Dravid, whose last assignment with the Indian team was the 2024 T20 World Cup triumph, felt the Men In Blue are the team to beat given their smashing form in the shortest format.
“India are playing T20 cricket at a different level than most teams. They have had an 80 per cent success rate in the last few years, which is amazing in a format that has so many ups and downs. They clearly start as favorites and they will make it to the semifinals but as I have learned to my bitter disappointment, it’s about the better team on the day. Anybody can play a good knock and upset you.”
Dravid credited former captain Rohit for bringing a tectonic change in India’s approach in limited-overs cricket. “There was a feeling that we were slightly behind in white-ball cricket and needed to push the envelope a little more. Run rates were going up, risk-taking was increasing, and we needed to adapt to that reality.
“What was brilliant was that Rohit took the lead immediately. He took responsibility for setting the tempo himself, rather than asking others to do it. When your leader stands up and says, ‘I will do this, even if it comes at the cost of my average or my personal numbers,’ it becomes much easier to pass that message through the team.”