Unbreachable: India’s sweet home turf Hosts test the contours ahead of pink-ball Test
As far as advantage in familiar conditions go, world No 1 Test team’s grip is way better than Australia, England
INDORE: It’s a fortress that India now call their home. They have built it brick by brick over the past three decades, culminating in a record 11 straight series wins—india’s last loss at home was against England in December 2012. Since then it has been a cruise, hitting top gear in the last five years.
All top Test teams have crumbled here, some multiple times. With 20 wins in 26 Tests in the last five years, India’s win percentage at home is 77, way ahead of Australia (63), England (61.7) and South Africa (66).
India are unbeaten in 25 of these Tests, which takes that percentage to a staggering 96.1. In the same period, Australia’s unbeaten percentage is 85, England’s 67.6 and South Africa’s 77.
In the present decade, which ends with this two-test series against Bangladesh starting on Thursday, India have won 35 of 48 Tests at home, a win percentage of 72.9 and an unbeaten percentage of 91.6. In the same phase, Australia’s figures are 65.4 (win) and 83.6 (unbeaten); England’s 61.2 and 85 and South Africa’s 61.2 and 78.7.
India did not lose a bilateral series at home in the 1990s. But their win-loss ratio then was 3.4 (17 wins, 5 losses). It also produced their best home record till 2010 came. Entering the final phase of this decade, India’s winloss ratio stands at 8.75.
So, it didn’t come as a surprise when the word respect became the leitmotif of Bangladesh batsman Mohammad Mithun’s media conference at the Holkar Stadium here on Tuesday.
INDIA’S STRENGTH Following a four-hour nets session Bangladesh had—with the red SG ball—mithun said: “Top teams from around the world have come here (to India) and could do little. That says a lot about India’s strength at home. Even then I believe if we play well as a unit, try and dominate as many sessions as we can, we can put India under pressure. All said it needs just one ball to get a batsman out, so hoping for 20 wickets is quite fair. Key to India’s success has been taking 20 wickets.”
Indian bowlers have taken 20 wickets in 21 of their 26 Tests in the last five years, the prime damagers being the spinners. India have taken 491 wickets in all, and 324 of them have been scalped by spinners. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have shared 284 of those wickets, which is 57.8% of the total wickets and 87.6% of the wickets that fell to spinners.
The spinners’ share was down a notch from the five-year figure in the recent 3-0 whitewash of South Africa. They bagged 32 of the 60 wickets (53.3%), but even that apparently has the Bangladesh batsmen worried.
“The biggest thing is all five Indian bowlers are really good. You cannot target anyone. We have seen lots of footage, they are really good,” said Mithun. “We have to be careful and give them proper respect, and only then will it increase our chances of staying at the wicket,” he added.
PACE BATTERY
India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane said it was heartening to see how the pace battery operated against South Africa.
“It is really good to see. I thought it started from Australia, South Africa also, but what I saw in the last series against South Africa was that our fast bowlers did really well.
The credit goes to the whole unit, not just one bowler; all the fast bowlers. Also our trainers, physios, they looked after our fast bowlers really well. It is good to watch our pacers dominating in India, and not only abroad. I am really happy for them,” he said.
Rahane too spoke of not taking Bangladesh lightly. “We respect them, but it’s important to play to our strengths,” he said. “Bangladesh is a very good team. They compete, play as a unit. We always focus on our strengths rather than thinking about the opponents.”
India’s dominance at home also stems from top teams struggling to put up big totals as frequently as Indian batsmen have. In the last five years, India have scored over 600 seven times at home.
Visiting teams have gone past even 400 just five times—india have crossed that mark 15 times. In the same period, Australia have scored 600 plus at home just thrice, South Africa once while England haven’t. By contrast, visiting teams have scored more than 400 in Australia 12 times, in England 10 times and once in South Africa.
“But as a team it is important that we forget how well we played against South Africa. It’s past now, it’s important to be in the present. Think about this match, think about the Bangladesh team. And after this Test, we’ll think about the pink-ball Test,” Rahane said.
INDORE: All those who thought playing a Test under lights in the subcontinent would further tilt the scales in favour of batsmen may have to think again. After his first experience batting against the pink ball, one of India’s batting mainstays and vice-captain, Ajinkya Rahane, had a different story to share.
The feedback from India players—cheteshwar Pujara, Md Shami, Wriddhiman Saha, Kuldeep Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin— who have played a pink-ball game at least once at domestic or club level, revealed a few traits. Dew is a factor and makes batting easier under lights; spinners find it difficult to grip and hence it doesn’t spin much; the moisture from the ground spreads uniformly over the ball, which makes it difficult to develop a ball for reverse swing. Incidentally, all the 11 daynight long-form matches in India were played with the Kookaburra ball, which is machine-made and so the seam is not pronounced. The Kookaburra also did not swing much after the initial overs and batsmen had the upper hand.
Rahane said playing with the pink SG ball, which will be used for India’s first-ever day-night Test in Kolkata against Bangladesh, would be a “different ball game”. Rahane, Shami and Ravindra Jadeja had two long practice sessions with the pink SG ball at the NCA in Bengaluru before joining the Test squad here and the vice-captain said playing close to the body would be the key. “We had three or four sessions but two with pink ball—one during the day and one under lights. Shami and Jadeja were also there. It was exciting. It was the first time I played with pink ball and it’s a different ball game compared to the red ball. Our focus during practice was to look into the swing and seam and also play close to our body. We found the pink ball does a lot more than the red. We have to play slightly late. We had a word with Rahul (Dravid) bhai also as he was there,” he said on Tuesday. Dravid heads NCA.
“The lateral movement is big, a lot more than the red. I’m sure we’ll get two good practice sessions in Kolkata. I’m sure everyone will adjust very quickly. It’s just the mindset, technical skills will play a role. But mentally if you can adjust to the pink ball, it’ll be good,” he said. “Generally when dew comes into play, it becomes easy for batsmen. But I don’t know how the pink SG ball will behave when dew sets in. Our spinners had played (in 2016 Duleep Trophy) with Kookaburra. It’s different. We played against spinners in Bangalore with SG, and they were getting good revvs (revolutions to impart spin) on the ball. The shine is also completely different to the red. What I’ve heard from others was that the Kookaburra is easy for batsmen but in Bangalore the SG pink ball was doing quite a bit for the pacers. For spinners, it was slightly difficult but it’s very difficult for me to compare the Kookaburra and SG because I haven’t played the pink ball before.”
Rahane’s inputs must have trickled into the Indian dressing room and on Tuesday at a side net, skipper Virat Kohli straightaway began by taking throwdowns with a new pink SG ball. It was afternoon and sighting the ball should not have been a problem but it did appear the pink ball bounced more (Shubman Gill was hit on his side and needed medical attention at the nets). After Kohli finished with the throwdowns and shifted to the main net, Pujara took his place and received throwdowns with both pink and red balls. He was followed by Gill, Hanuma Vihari and Rahane as edges flew thick and fast. This drill could have been for mental adjustment, like Rahane said. Batting against both the balls simultaneously could help a batsman play every ball on its merit and take its colour and characteristics out of the equation.
The India squad however did not wait until twilight to test whether they could pick the pink ball comfortably, but according to Rahane, “the focus right now is on the Indore Test. We will get at least two solid sessions in Kolkata and that should be enough”.