Tackling spin tough for Indian batters too

Cricket : Recent record against tweakers has been poor

India won the first Test and won it handsomely. The course of the Test, however, once again highlighted their batsmen’s inadequacies against the turning ball; quite a departure from the not too distant past when dominating spin came as naturally to them as duck taking to water.

On a pitch, which Virat Kohli himself didn’t agree was as devious as it was made out to be, India gave away as many as 15 wickets to South African spinners, and 10 of them were top-order batsmen. This should be a cause for concern for this is not an isolated case. Empirical evidences from the last three Test series, starting the one in England in mid-2014, do imply that the current generation of Indian batsmen has looked susceptible to spinners.

“See we have played spin relatively badly in the past,” Kohli admitted after the match. “Once it happened in Galle.” The Indian Test skipper was referring to India’s defeat in the first Test against Sri Lanka in August this year. Chasing a 176-run target for win, India disintegrated in sensational fashion to fold for 112 against the left-arm spin of Rangana Herath.

While one can’t just yet conclude it to be a trend, there are enough such instances for the team to seriously address the issue. India lost 19 of their batsmen against Moeen Ali during the series against England last year though the off-spinner till then operated only sporadically. And strikingly again, 11 of those 19 were top-order batsmen.

The story wasn’t much different in Australia that India lost 0-2. Off-spinner Nathan Lyon was the highest wicket-taker of the series with 23 sticks in four Tests. Sixteen of them were specialist batsmen. When they went to Sri Lanka, Tharindhu Kaushal and Herath shared 28 wickets between them in three Tests. And allied with their performance against South Africa in the first Test here, India have lost 85 wickets to spin in the last 13 Tests spread over last 16 months. That’s a huge number for the acknowledged masters of spin.

So where does the problem lie? Kohli alluded to the pressure a sub-continental batsman endures while facing a spinner.

“It is always said that the Indians or Asians are very good players of spin,” Kohli remarked. “That might pressurise a few guys saying that ‘we have to play spin well.’ And if that doesn't happen once or twice, it starts building up. It could be anything. The individuals need to be spoken to individually. At times we have played spin well. It’s in the second innings when we have not played spin well, as far as I have experienced,” Kohli reasoned.

It’s obvious that it’s in the second innings of a Test that the spinners become more effective due to natural wear and tear of the pitch. This is when technique becomes as much critical as temperament to one’s survival. Indian team’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar feels three aspects are important to tackle spinners – confidence in your defence, feet movement and the use of the depth of the crease.

“Having confidence in your defence, not being too much concerned by close-in catchers,” noted Bangar when asked about what is expected of a batsman on turning tracks. “The second thing is using your feet to smother the spin, and also to use the depth of the crease whenever that opportunity arises to score on either side of the wicket. We saw how (Murali) Vijay and (Cheteshwar) Pujara were able to create that room to score through the off side off the back foot. Those are the skills that are required,” he analysed.

If one were to see the Indian batsmen in Mohali, majority of them weren’t sure whether to go forward or stay on the back foot. This confusion could be the direct result of lack confidence in one’s defence; possibly because of lack of focus while playing spinners; whether during nets or in match situations. Often we have seen a tendency of Indian batsmen to go after the spinners. While the idea may be to unsettle the bowlers, the approach hasn’t always been as productive – be it against Moeen in England or Lyon in Australia.

The nature of pitches too is changing in domestic cricket in an ostensive effort to encourage fast bowlers and enhance batsmen’s confidence while facing pace. While this has yielded some positive results in terms of emergence of young pacemen and batsmen looking confident against quality pace bowling abroad, their batting against spin and the general quality of spin bowling in India have taken a severe beating in the bargain. There is a need to strike balance between stress on pace and sustenance of spin.