Shamik Chakrabarty in Colombo
At the Premadasa Stadium nets on Tuesday, the emphasis was firmly on playing spin. The Indian batsmen have struggled against Sri Lanka’s spinners in the ongoing series, and this is not a case in isolation.
Across formats, there appears to be a decline in the quality of batsmanship, when the ball is turning. It happened in Bangladesh two years ago. It happened against Australia in Indore last year. There was a time when Indian batsmen were masters of playing spin even on turners. Very few in the current squad can match their predecessors’ skill-set. Gautam Gambhir, the India coach, was one of the best against that variety during his time as a player. India’s travails against the turning ball in the first two ODIs must have disappointed him.
In the first game, the tourists couldn’t chase down 231, as the middleorder was caught in the Sri Lankan spin web. From 75 for no loss, they slumped to 132/6 and then, after a 57-run sixth wicket partnership between KL Rahul and Axar Patel, they once again lost wickets in clusters.
In the second match, India slumped to 208 all out, from 97 for no loss, to lose by 32 runs. Leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay returned with 6/33. The 34-year-old wasn’t even part of the Sri Lankan squad and was brought in only as WaninduHasaranga’s replacement. He just bowled a stump-to-stump line, allowing the pitch to do the rest. A big-spinning surface narrowed the gap between the two teams, and the Indian batsmen couldn’t rise to the challenge.
A look into the nature of dismissals of the Indian batsmen in the last game would confirm how they never looked confident, as the ball was gripping and turning. Shubman Gill tried an expansive drive against Vandersay without getting to the pitch of the ball. A thick edge to slip ensued. In challenging conditions, Shivam Dube looked a rabbit caught in the headlights. Shreyas Iyer, one of the better players against spin in this Indian team, read the googly but couldn’t cope with the additional turn from Vandersay. KL Rahul fell prey to wrong shot selection. Even Virat Kohli looked uncomfortable and misjudged the line of the delivery, as Vandersay sneaked one past his bat.
To be fair to Iyer and Rahul, they batted lower down the order, at No. 6 and 7 respectively, with the Indian team management seemingly hell-bent on maintaining a left-right combination. Playing out of position affects a batsman’s mindset, although that can’t be an excuse for India’s middle-order meltdown.
Interestingly, Iyer and Rahul were the first two players at the nets today, with Iyer practicing a lot of reverse-sweeps. Outside the nets, Gill had a chat with Kohli followed by a lengthy conversation with Gambhir. Only Rohit Sharma has scored runs in the first two ODIs. For India to level the series, an improvement in playing spin on turners is urgently needed.
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