India legend Sunil Gavaskar explained why India are no longer a strong spin-playing nation.
Speaking to Sports Tak, Gavaskar said that if Indian players played more domestic cricket, this problem could have been avoided.
“A lot of our players do not play domestic cricket. If you play domestic cricket, you will get to play on such pitches, right? Because even at the domestic level, teams are trying to get the points so that they qualify for the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy, which means that there will be pitches where the ball will grip and turn a little bit. But none of our players are playing that. None of our current players. How many of our current players actually deign to go down and play Ranji Trophy?”
South Africa defeated India in the first Test of the two-match series at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata by 30 runs in a low-scoring match. India bowled out the Proteas for 159 in the first innings, and it was expected that the hosts would take a solid lead. But India managed only a small advantage of 30 runs.
South Africa then set a target of 124. India were expected to chase it, but they fell short once again. Except for Washington Sundar and Axar Patel, none of the batters could put up a fight. Seven out of India’s eleven batters were dismissed for single-digit scores.
Many experts blamed the pitch after the defeat. But Gavaskar believes that India’s main problem was the batters’ lack of skill against spin, not the surface.
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