India’s Test losses: a result of stereotypes and the quest for balance

A harsh summer, scorching at 30 degrees by English standards, may be sweeping across the British Isles but India failed to turn on the heat in the recently concluded World Test Championship final at London’s Oval. The tepid performance and Australia’s resultant 209-run triumph again dished out an Indian tale of being ‘so near and yet so far’ from a coveted piece of ICC silverware.

The defeatist tropes were at play yet again ranging from the insensitive ‘tigers at home, lambs abroad’ dirge on social-media to genuine queries about team-composition, decision-making and batting meltdowns. England, even in summer, can be an amalgam of warm sun, low-slung clouds, hint of rain and perhaps those odd streaks of a nip in the air. Still as a combine they cannot be reasons to bench wily spinner R. Ashwin but the team-management precisely did that, banking on a four-man seam attack and reposing faith in Ravindra Jadeja as the primary slow bowler while playing overseas.

Ashwin missed

The post-mortems have come thick and fast: Ashwin was missed, the batters didn’t contribute even if Ajinkya Rahane was exceptional in the first dig, the seamers weren’t exactly on fire and may be the turnaround from IPL was too short. All these are valid points even if we do make the concession that except in the final stretch, India has been the consistent unit across two WTC cycles, finishing runners-up in both.

Rahane was the only Indian batter to stand tall at The Oval. 
| Photo Credit:
AP

However, there are other issues that simmer under the surface and perhaps remain in the backburner. Why does India at times get its playing eleven wrong when travelling abroad? It is obviously due to this quest for balance, a concept that is both utopian and utilitarian within the cricketing prism. M.S. Dhoni always wanted a seam-bowling all-rounder in Tests, someone who could bowl some overs and equally score handy runs down the order.

It meant that players ranging from Stuart Binny then to Hardik Pandya now, were all tried. The former prospered briefly before fading away while the latter now seems more inclined towards white-ball cricket and perhaps wary about his back while hurtling into bowl. In the absence of this element, team-managements have either leant on the wicketkeeper-batter like Rishabh Pant to accordingly adjust the batting and bowling arms or prop up Shardul Thakur into the all-rounder gambit or hope that the tail as a whole would wag. At times it could happen but more often than not it doesn’t.

And we again get back to this intangible called balance and a grim reality stares us in our face. Remember the previous generation of players? Well, there were batters, who could actually bowl. Sachin Tendulkar with his bouquet of skills – dibbly-dobblers, spin – off and leg; Sourav Ganguly – gentle seam; Virender Sehwag – off-spin, the list is longer if you get into the ODIs and T20s and factor in Yuvraj Singh, may be a Suresh Raina and a few others. What this does is that even with a beefed up batting unit and a four-man attack, India had enough players, who could turn their arm over, either to get the over-rate in track or even to prise out wickets. All these players mentioned above were fierce competitors and they were not exactly doing a holding job and hence those excessive emotions on display when they snapped up wickets. Remember, even the West Indies during those supreme days had the great Vivian Richards bowling off-spin while the four speedsters rested a bit.

Cut to the present, India’s top- and middle-order only bats, there is no itch or perhaps the skill to bowl. Kohli, a wrong-footed seamer, hasn’t bowled for long. Others seem keen on holding the willow or pouching catches within the close-in cordon and when this happens, there is unhealthy pressure on the main bowlers and then this quest for balance (read it as having a bowling-allrounder) pops up again and it then slips into stereotypes – okay it is England/Australia/ New Zealand or South Africa so let it be four seamers and one spinner! Long back, Anil Kumble had to sit on the sidelines and watch Harbhajan Singh ply his wares, now it seems it is Ashwin’s turn.

No incentive

May be this reluctance to bowl or burnish dormant bowling skills within the current Indian ranks could be attributed to a coaching structure that has throw-down specialists. At nets, there is no incentive for the batters to bowl at their bowling counterparts because the throw-down specialists would do the job. But truth be told, Tendulkar gleaned phenomenal joy in bowling an outswinger and hoodwinking Javagal Srinath or float up a googly and surprise Kumble. Yes these were nets sessions but there were layers to it.

And just as this search for balance at times means the squad’s centre of gravity dangerously tilts towards the turf and terrible defeats are suffered, another drawback has been doing the rounds without getting its share of mind-space. The old cliche was that India is the land of spin and equally its batters were resplendent against the slow art. It is not that the current practitioners of batting cannot play spin but in their emphasis on countering fierce speed merchants and perhaps in their leaning on that old battle cry of offering fire against fire, the desire to dish out some chess against spinners, of countering the twirly men with a mix of defence and attack, has been on the wane.

It is not that Indian batters have never failed against spin. Greg Matthews, Tauseef Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Ajantha Mendis and Graeme Swann, to name a few, have had their moments of success. But largely when we talk opposition spinners, there are enough batters who have taken the very best to the cleaners. Navjot Sidhu used to hoist spinners into the upper stands at will and many of his acclaimed colleagues, were equally adept at both defending against spin and striking all over the park. But currently, the dancing-down-the-pitch-and-lofting-the-spinner mode seems on the decline.

Skipper Rohit Sharma fell on the sweep against Nathan Lyon at the Oval. Sweep – conventional, slog and reverse – has its merits and readers of a certain vintage may recall Graham Gooch sweeping India out of the 1987 World Cup semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium. Still, the sweep has its risks like any across-the-line shot would entail. Even while failing against James Anderson during the 2014 tour of England, Kohli was busy finessing the slog-sweep, a ploy he wanted to use against spinner Moeen Ali. The sweep need not be avoided but a certain discretion is essential.

A pre-determined approach against the slow-art doesn’t always pay but a certain presumption and equally a sense of diffidence have marred India’s batting against spin in recent times, especially in the longer format. Perhaps it is macho to survive and quell pace but spin may not evoke such sentiments. Spin occupies a large chunk of middle overs in Tests, especially in the Indian subcontinent and even at venues like Sydney or the Oval abroad. And spin has to be countered if Tests are to last the distance.

A V.V.S. Laxman in the Hyderabad nets had to face Arshad Ayub, Venkatapathy Raju and Kanwaljit Singh. He could hone his wristy approach against spin and it came in handy against Shane Warne. Current batters don’t get such luxuries, caught up as they are with national duties and IPL jaunts. And in T20s, they are coping against spinners bowling flat, preferring a rare dot ball over an essential wicket. There is a weakness now, not due to technical flaws, but largely stemming from an attitude that obsesses over rival pace bowlers while amnesia masks the need to factor in spin.

Transition phase

As India gets into another transition phase in the forthcoming WTC cycle, these areas – be it the search for balance or even the approach against rival spinners – would be as crucial as lasting the first hour against fresh medium-pacers and stepping in with a squad that will be adaptable to all five days. Food for thought as the Indian players get a well-deserved break even if some like Ashwin would be busy playing the Tamil Nadu Premier League and some others may turn out in the Duleep Trophy.