India’s poor technique against spin came to the fore during the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, where they lost as many as 27 wickets to slow bowlers.
Ryan ten Doeschate, India’s newly appointed assistant coach, has opined his views on the team’s recent struggles against spinners. On TalkSport Cricket, Ryan revealed he didn’t expect it, and India were undone on Sri Lankan shores a couple of weeks back.
“One of the challenges I wasn’t expecting and I kind of overlooked is the playing of spin by Indian batters. We got undone in Sri Lanka. The mindset of India has been such that they’ve been so desperate to do well overseas.”
Doechate added the motive has been to do well in nations like Australia and England, where pacers remain more in the game. That’s why India have lost their biggest strength – handling the turning balls on turning pitches well.
“The focus has moved to doing well in Australia (and) England [so] that we’ve kind of let playing spin, which was always a strength of the Indian team, fall back a little bit. That’s one thing I’m looking forward to helping with, getting to that position where Indians are the best players of spin in the world again.”
India’s poor technique against spin came to the fore during the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, where they lost as many as 27 wickets to slow bowlers. These were the most dismissals to tweakers in a three-match ODI series, and the Indian batters averaged a mere 16.37 against them.
The method of dismissals throughout the series was more concerning, for Indian batters played with a faulty technique. For instance, Virat Kohli took a huge stride forward and played a completely wrong line to succumb to a leg-spinner, whereas Shivam Dube, a spin specialist, didn’t read the ball from the hand, either, to lose his wicket.
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Even good spin players like Shreyas Iyer made the same mistake and perished. There was a lack of authority in shot selections of Indian batters, often culminating in loose dismissals.
Sure, the track was tricky to bat, but some application was the need of the hour, and India failed massively. One bad series doesn’t make them mediocre players of spin, but they know it’s an area they need to improve.
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