At sea with the bat

Over the course of the last four months, India have lost six out of eight Tests. They lost their chance at qualifying for the World Test Championship Final. They even had their skipper Rohit Sharma sit out a Test due to poor form. 

For a side which has prided itself in becoming and being a Test behemoth for over a decade, getting white-washed at home by New Zealand across three games, and losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia over five Tests in such a short span has triggered a massive debate.

But the crux of the problem lies in this one fact: India have scored over 300 runs only twice across 16 innings since October 16. Lest we forget, that dreary day in Bengaluru started this slide with the team getting bowled out for 46.

It's safe then to deduce that batting, which was the cornerstone of India's defiance in the past, has let them down. Worse still, there are far too many problems to address all at once. Indian cricket will be all right in time (here’s hoping), but for this malaise to lift, the batters need to find themselves.

Skill isn’t the issue because you don’t get to play Test cricket for India, at least in this era, without being absolutely, remarkably good with it. 

Resources aren’t a problem because even if a fraction of the 300 million who pursue cricket in India are good, the system in place will percolate quality. 

Infrastructure isn’t a concern (in Tier 1 cities) because academies and leagues offer all the latest, and have qualified coaches assisting them. 

Over and above all this, the Board of Control for Cricket for India has in place an exceptional grassroots system to ensure quality doesn’t slip through the cracks. There might be some who fall through, but the Indian Premier League usually does a great job of arresting that slide. 

These, you would assume, are lab conditions to erect a standing army of near-bionic batters, but here’s the kicker: India have not scored more than 500 runs in an innings of a Test match in nearly three years. 

They have played twenty-nine Test matches since that 574 for 8 declared against Sri Lanka in Mohali in March 2022, with some of the finest bat wielders the world has ever seen and they have gone by past even 400 only a few times.

Even in the course of researching this story, there was an abundance of evidence to suggest that these ruts have occurred in the past and have passed, but this one feels different because at no single point in time before this new phase did Indian batters look like they were reinventing the wheel. 

They had role players and they trusted them to get it done. India did lose back then too but they seldom looked so dishevelled as a batting unit, especially at home. Frankly, had it not been for Jasprit Bumrah this Border-Gavaskar Trophy wouldn’t have been as kind to those with Indian leanings.

Yes, Indian batters no longer play the spin with the same authority they were known for. Oh, but they aren’t comfortable playing swing either, and they’d rather avoid bouncy wickets and seaming wickets are a strict ‘no, no’. So, what is left? A nice, clean strip on which the ball comes onto the bat as if out of a bowling machine?

But this isn’t a problem with India alone because, objectively speaking, Australia didn’t bat particularly well themselves. 

Everyone’s on the dish-and-dash diet which doesn’t promote value to a wicket, and that short-format ideology has seeped into batters’ minds. While they claim they are able to compartmentalise one from the other as a series approaches, there is no evidence to prove that they actually can. 

Their commitment to Test cricket isn't in any doubt but are they putting in the hard yards that prepares them for the grind? Those playing in the senior team don’t have it in them to play domestic cricket during off season. The last time Rohit Sharma played a domestic game was in 2016, and Virat Kohli was way back in 2012. 

That it has taken them this long to come completely undone without that domestic nurture is a testament to how good they are as batters, but the problem is that it also sets the precedence for others to follow the course. 

The BCCI has now put its foot down and said Indian cricketers will have to play for their states when international duty doesn’t sweep them away. Of course, given just how much cricket India play, it feels like an overkill to also expect them to suit up for their domestic side too, but this is their job and they’ve got to do what it takes to keep it. 

What this domestic cricket does for a cricketer, besides humbling them, is that it allows you to face some real quality spinners in the world and also run into some of the most driven cricketers you could come across. 

The domestic circuit is a beast and it will sharpen your technique because what could be worse than being a ‘legendary’ batter on the international circuit and getting out to a nobody in an obscure part of India?

Also, since we’ve established that this generation of Indian batters isn’t particularly good on turning wickets, why does the Indian team insist on spin-friendly wickets at home when they could just as well ask for "sporting pitches" and bat the opposition out? Like they did so exceedingly well against England. Moreover, this might then allow a Test match to play out for four-five days. That’ll be something. 

All things considered, it has become clear that India’s batters don’t have the heart to fight it out because they don’t have the muscle memory for it. They have gotten so used to ‘expressing themselves’ that they don’t know what that expression looks like anymore. ‘Ugly’ is the word that comes to mind.