Indian batsmen good players of spin? - Not Anymore

Indian batsmen good players of spin? – Not Anymore: Indian batsmen struggling against spin? If you asked this question when the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly were around you would be marked as freak whose queries do not deserve a reply. But those freakish queries have transformed into reality.

Before you decide upon that this is one of those blindly critical pieces, it would be wise to have a look at the scorecard of the second unofficial Test between India A and Australia A. Being beaten by a visiting team by 10 wickets in a test at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, when was the last time you heard that!! And howsoever hard we try to make the word ‘unofficial’ stand out, even we know deep inside our hearts that looking the other way is no solution to the problem at hand. At this level there is no place to hide. There simply isn’t. And when you are exposed the world watches and notes it down in bold letters. Your excuses only add fuel to the fire. Accepting it and attempting to rectify is the only way to approach such situations.

The second (unofficial not to forget) Test got over with the young Australia A side demolishing the Indians by 10 wickets. Stephen O’Keefe took 6 wickets while Agar, returning from injury bagged 5. And you think it was just the A side. If Virat Kohli, Chetshwar Pujara, Naman Ojha are part of any side even the best cricket brains would refrain from calling it sub-standard. Kohli wanted to use the outing as a practice game for the Tests in Sri Lanka and look what transpired.

In the first innings he appeared good enough for getting out on every other ball before eventually succeeding in a sedate 42 ball stay at the crease. While taking nothing away from the young Aussie spinners Stephen O’Keefe and Ashton Agar it is fair to say they were made to look menacing and unplayable on a pitch that wasn’t exactly a minefield. Another noteworthy point is the Australian’s playing Pragyan Ojha with no considerable difficulty.

Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Baba Aparajit – aren’t these the guys you call the future of Indian cricket. And if not then it puts serious doubts on the first class structure and the quality of players it is bringing through. But what is the way forward. Will it do any good if we keep on heaping praises if a particular player gets loads of runs in the Ranji Trophy or the IPL. The A team does not have the word A before it for nothing. And if this is how we are performing in conditions our players have grown up in, how realistic would it be to expect them to go and topple foreign sides in their den.

The England series in 2012 was an eye opener but the BCCI did not choose to look at it with those lenses. Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann made the much; famed Indian batting order look like novices. And those who thought it had nothing to do with technique it was a repeat show when India toured England in 2014. It was like England saying: “We don’t need a Graeme Swann to handle you, even Moeen Ali is enough for you.”

Equally concerning is India’s performance against the spinners when they play overseas. While the Indian spinners have failed to turn the ball and look rollers at best the visiting tweaker gets crucial scalps. And you know what if you have time to fulfill your advertising commitments, only then will you find some time to play domestic cricket. One doesn’t need to point out who we are referring to. It is better to acknowledge your deficiencies than to live in a world of self certification. Being born in India does not make you a good player of spin. You have got to learn from each possible source and keep improving your technique by testing yourself against the best. And BCCI is doing no great service by providing green carpets in Ranji Trophy. That is hindering the development of budding spinners and young Indian batsmen are not getting to face high class spin at first class level.

But does that also mean that the current crop is not as adept at handling quality spin as their predecessors? Will the likes of Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma never come close to the consistency of a Dravid or a Tendulkar? If that happens to be the case, India has a big reason to worry because these names will form the nucleus of Indian batting until the end of this decade.