The India-Pakistan 2025 Asia Cup encounter will be echoed for reasons outside of cricket. The Indian cricketers didn’t shake hands with their counterparts, and the Pakistan skipper didn’t attend the presentation ceremony. There would be a plethora of discussions on whether it was right on the part of Suryakumar Yadav & Co to not perform what was basically an act of courtesy. But just pare through everything that happened off the field, the main narrative of the match was Pakistan’s woeful show while facing India’s spinners.
Granted that India’s attack comprised who’s who of spin bowling – Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel. To extend the point further, the trio didn’t just showcase their bagful of tricks and bowl with exemplary control, but the pitch also assisted the spinners to some extent in the first innings. Having said all that, Pakistan’s fundamental approach towards facing the troika was flawed.
Pakistan’s batters were caught in a cycle of playing out dots. Ultimately, resulting in a hack across the line sans any conviction. In total, Pakistan’s batters couldn’t score a run off 40 deliveries against the Indian spinners. Even Abhishek Sharma’s part-time spin was respected, with the left-arm spinner going for just five runs in his only over.
“I don’t think there was any issue in picking spinners, it’s what you do with it when you pick it,” Mike Hesson, the Pakistan head coach, said. “Axar’s – there’s no mystery there. He slides the ball, occasionally turns one. It’s more the accuracy and pressure that they build up, when you build up a lot of dots, sometimes your mind plays tricks and you play big shots. It’s certainly not that they can’t pick it, the fact is we struggled to rotate strike to take pressure off ourselves.”
Barring a few sloggers who just try to give it a mighty thump, and occasionally succeed, power-hitting against spin is also a craft. With the conditions in the UAE aiding the spinners, it demanded the batters to pick the length early, use the depth of the crease and play late. It could also be about targeting safe options like straighter boundaries by keeping your eyes level, and taking small steps toward the ball.
In summary, a very good player of spin doesn’t just play off the front foot. But he or she would also collect runs against the turn and convert a good length ball into a single by playing right back. Of course, Pakistan’s batting unit is inexperienced and most of them wouldn’t have faced spinners of such high calibre. However, if they want to challenge India in this tournament, then they need a far better template versus spin.
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