'Beauty is playing on different pitches'

As questions about the current Indian batsmen’s ability, or rather the lack of it, to handle spin get shriller, there is no better person than Sunil Gavaskar to throw light on what is a complex issue.  

The former India captain analyses batsmen’s problems and suggests solutions in this freewheeling chat. Excerpts:

How important is to have different kinds of pitches?
Oh clearly, I think playing in different conditions, different pitches is the beauty of international cricket. International Test cricket or one-day cricket, playing in different conditions also is a test of your skill as well as your temperament. So to have pitches which are similar all over the world doesn’t make sense. Clearly, some pitches that you play on in Australia or South Africa will have a lot more bounce and pace. Pitches in England and New Zealand will have a lot of seam movement. Pitches in the subcontinent, there will be a fair bit of turn. So these are different pitches where batsmen and bowlers, both, have to make the adjustments.

What are the primary skills required on track like the Mohali one?
Firstly, loads of patience and secondly, footwork. Just to be able to get to the pitch of the ball. We saw AB de Villliers was batting very positively, getting to the pitch of the ball. He was literally getting so close to the pitch of the ball that there was very little chance for the ball to move, turn and do anything. That’s clearly the trick. Once you start getting to the pitch of the ball, the bowler tries to shorten his length and that shortening in length means you get the opportunity to either play the cut shot, back foot cut shot, or the pull shot as well. So you are trying to create those opportunities by your footwork and I think that is the way to go but you also need to be patient.

Do you think the art of batting on tracks like these is disappearing?
To an extent you have got to say that because frankly the technique has changed. The batting technique has changed to the extent that, because of so much of limited-overs cricket, a lot of hard hands are seen even in Test cricket. A lot of jabbing and pushing is seen in Test cricket. What happens also with the weight of the bat is when the weight of your bat is heavy, you are trying to get some push and power into your shots and therefore you are playing hard at the delivery. You play with the lighter bats, you can control your bat speed that much easier.

Is there a desire to impose yourself as a batsman due to limited-overs cricket?
They get used to it because they play on surfaces which are pretty good to bat on generally. They play at grounds where the boundaries are brought in. So even if they mistime the ball, sometimes it goes for a six. So yes, I think, the fact that they do that in the limited-overs format makes them believe that they can do it even in Test cricket. But I think the difference has also got to be in the ball – the white ball and the red ball. It is technically just the colour but I think the way the seam is made makes a difference. The seam for the white ball flattens a lot quicker than the seam for the red ball and therefore the red ball will do a little more, whether it is spinning, seaming, contrast swinging – whatever you might call it. It keeps doing a little bit more and therefore to be able to take on the bowler doesn’t become easy unless it is a real flat pitch where nothing’s happening and you can play through the line of the ball without worrying.

Are Indian batsmen’s struggles against spin alarming?
As long as India is winning the matches, there will be no cause for alarm, clearly. But yes, I think it’s something they need to look at because really, to be able to score on all kinds of surfaces is what you want as your recognition as a batsman; that the man scored against all attacks on all kinds of surfaces, in all kinds of conditions. But if you are not scoring runs even in Indian conditions because of the fact that the ball is turning — and by scoring runs, I mean hundreds. You can score your 50s, 60s and 70s, they are fine, nothing wrong with 50s, 60s and 70s, a half-century is a half-century after all. But there is nothing to beat a century and that is where all these factors — temperament, technique, everything comes into play.

Are we too obsessed in wanting to do well overseas?
We are looking so much for appreciation from overseas that that makes us believe that we got to do well overseas and I think that is not such a bad idea at all. You want to do well overseas because everybody expects you to do well at home. So you want to do well overseas but it should not be something that should weigh you down because you are going to play in conditions which are foreign to you, however often you travel to that country. It’s just a part of cricket that some series are played at home, some matches are played overseas.