Not many would have expected to see Virat Kohli, of all people, acting as mediator trying to diffuse the tension in the Adelaide Test as players from India and Australia got involved in a heated exchange of words on more than one occasion. Virat too got in the thick of things but he also attempted to cool things down, which is a huge achievement for him and something Indian fans never thought they would see.
Many would also not have expected to see Indian batsmen crumble against a finger spinner on an Australian wicket, in both innings. When Nathan Lyon began to get the ball to kick and turn in the first innings, the wheels of doom were set in motion.
Fans, and even some Indian batsmen, might have thought that Lyon’s offies would be threatening at best and would have spent most of their time planning against the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris and their reverse swing. But that was the entirely the wrong approach.
It all started in the first Test against South Africa at the end of last year. India were in control of the Johannesburg Test after taking a lead and were looking to push on in the second innings. Dale Steyn went wicketless and leg-spinner Imran Tahir was leaking runs at four an over. Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli added more than 200 runs for the third wicket. But just when India looked to push the knife further in, they got entangled in the part-time off spin of Jean-Paul Duminy.
The tweaker bowled 24 excellent overs for 87 runs, got the wicket of Kohli for 96 and stopped India from piling on more than 500 runs. As it turned out, South Africa almost chased down the target. And more importantly, Duminy out-bowled India’s ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Then came the England tour. Surely here India would only have to contend with seamers who dart the ball in and out. Unfortunately, that was not the case. After India won the second Test at Lord’s, all off-spin hell broke loose. India were looking to save the third Test and had done well to keep the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad at bay. But on the final day, a genial bloke who had recently broken into the side – going by the name of Moeen Ali – ripped the heart out of the Indian batting as he picked up six wickets to seal a massive win. In the next Test, he picked up four wickets in another commanding performance. The funny bit is, he was selected mainly as a batsman.
So when the Indians struggled so horribly against supposed part-time spinners, a top-class practitioner like Lyon was always going to be a handful. The effort and thought he put into every delivery, making maximum use of his height, revolutions in the ball and disconcerting bounce off the pitch, would have accounted for the best in the business. And I feel India are not the best anymore. Good but not the best.
On paper, India’s stars are supposed to be excellent players of spin, any time, anywhere. The idea being that since they face so many of them on helpful conditions at home, any spinner that comes up against them should not pose too big a threat. Just look at what they did to Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan over the years.
But that was a different era. India had batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag – all-time great players of spin. They dominated the slow bowlers so regularly, it was assumed the next batsmen in line would also be at ease against them. But nothing in life is certain.
Another factor that comes into the picture is the quality of bowlers in the domestic circuit. During India’s golden years of batting – late 1990s to early 2000s – there were many spinners vying for a spot in the national team. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh were in a class of their own but right behind them were the likes of Murali Kartik, Sarandeep Singh and Ramesh Powar. They were good spinners and gave batsmen in the domestic circuit a feel of good slow bowling.
But currently, there is not a single outstanding spinner in India. Ashwin is struggling to hold on to his place in any format, Ravindra Jadeja is more of a containing bowler while Pragyan Ojha is not even looked at for overseas Tests. In such a scenario, batsmen at the domestic level themselves aren’t challenged by good tweakers.
They have to make do with what is in front of them. This had led to a situation where finger spinners have started to trouble Indian batsmen even on wickets which don’t offer much help.
And don’t expect the situation to change any time soon. Indian batsmen in the T20 age have almost forgotten the art of building an innings and coupled with the fact that there aren’t any good spinners to test their mettle, those coming through the ranks will have similar deficiencies against the slow bowlers. And the last bastion of Indian cricket – mastery over spin – might just fall with that.
