Turning troubles
It would be fatuous to not expect the spinners to pick up the bulk of the wickets in the subcontinent, but what makes India’s case all the more alarming is the disquieting manner of their recent implosions. While facing the leg-spin of England’s Adil Rashid last year, for instance, both Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane often struggled to pick him. Rahane, in fact, succumbed to the leggie’s googly a couple of times. “There was a clear lack of application against Australia. Nobody put their head down and fought it out,” says Gaekwad.
O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon were made to look monsters in Pune because of a crumbling pitch. In actuality, though, they are the kind of spinners the Indian batsmen would’ve whacked out of the attack only a few years ago. Not anymore. “O’Keefe and Lyon are nowhere near the same quality as Swann or Herath. Yet, India struggled so horribly. They have to alter their approach while taking on spin,” says a former Indian spinner, on the condition of anonymity.
If you look back some more, the numbers start getting all the more unpleasant for India. On their tour of Australia at the fag end of 2014, the series’ top wicket-taker wasn’t Mitchell Johnson or Mitchell Starc, but Lyon, with 23. Clearly, the spin torment extends to overseas territories, too.
However, some are still backing them to come good. Former captain Ajit Wadekar believes that collapses like Pune don’t happen every day. “This happens in cricket sometimes. That doesn’t mean that they’ll perform like this in every match,” he says.
In the past, Indian batsmen have developed their own coping mechanisms against the spinners. Tendulkar used to go after them with ferocity, Laxman liked to use his feet and Dravid would simply block them out. The current crop operates in extremes: either it does nothing or adopts a ruinous amalgamation of the three. More importantly, most of them don’t trust their defence.
“They can take a cue from Aussie skipper Steve Smith. This is how you should be playing spin,” says a former player.
Smith, with his twitchy hands and bobbing head, doesn’t quite commit on the front foot — an archaic theory still prescribed by several coaches in dealing with quality spin. He stays deep in his crease and plays the ball mostly on length. Moreover, he sweeps and uses his feet with brutal efficiency. “Smith is the kind of batsman who adopts the modern-day method of overcoming spin,” says the former player.
The problem is most Indian batsmen don’t do that. With the exception of Pujara and Vijay, all of them are infrequent users of their feet, preferring to play from the crease instead. None of them — barring K L Rahul and Karun Nair — is a prolific sweeper of the ball, either. And even with Rahul, his will to dominate often ends with a reckless mistake. For some odd reason, our batsmen still choose to play spin the conventional Indian way — a plan that leads to embarrassing capitulations on challenging wickets.
Recent numbers and performances suggest that India’s days as the masters of spins are long gone. The last thing that they need in the second Test against Australia, which begins in Bengaluru today, is another rank turner. Hopefully, the curator will spare them that cruelty. >(Top) Aussie Steve O’Keefe picked up 12 wickets against India in the Pune Test last week
(Far left) England’s Adil Rashid picked up 23 wickets against India last year, finishing just behind Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who had 28 and 26, respectively
(Below left) Nathan Lyon, with 23, was the top wicket-taker on India’s tour of Australia in 2014-15
(Bottom left) Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar tormented India in 2012-13, with a combined tally of 37 wickets