Indian Batsman’s struggle against Overseas Spinners
Hello All, Bright
sunshine Christmas day and most importantly it’s the eve of the historic Boxing
day Test match in MCG between India and Australia.
Speaking about MCG and Spinners might sound awkward- By the
end of this post it might not..
Indians “ Gods of Spin “ Both bowling it and facing it , If any
coaching manual/ Cricket based book speaks about Spin, certainly there will be
a mention of Indian Spinners… Who can forget the Indian spinning greats like
E.Prasanna, Venkatraghavan, Bedi , Kumble and many many more…. How can we
forget Indian batsman dominate the likes of Murali, Warne who are legends…
“ Indians are traditionally better players of Spin than rest
of the world “, currently this stuff
might look like a distant memory.
Seeing India struggle against the likes of Monty Panesar,
Gramme Swann were claimed as one Off-series… If So What about gifting
wickets to Moeen Ali ??? and most recently Nathan Lyon (With all due respect)
and that too in Overseas conditions??
Lets see what is going wrong…
2012-13
Drastic decline of Indian Batsman against spin came in to
limelight when Monty and Swann spun a web around our batsman during 2012-13 India’s
series at home- Trust me these pitches are tailor-made for Indian spinners to
exploit the brittle Englishmen defense..
What happened later is history, England won a Test series in
Indian Soil after 28 years
Indian batsman found some solace at home, thanks to the Champions
trophy victory and some hapless show from West-Indies team.
2014
India went to England with a new bunch of players of course
expected to struggle against the likes of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Braod, but
surprisingly it was Moeen Ali , lanky Part-time offie who took 19 wickets. Moeen Said in an interview, "I don't know how
I'm getting these wickets but I'm happy to".
2014-15
India’s
horror continues, but this time its a genuine offie in Nathan Lyon who is
troubling us. Remember in 1st test India has 8 wickets in hand 30
odd overs to negotiate and 120 odd to get. Even a worse pessimist would have
predicted an Indian Victory a draw at least, but it turned out to be an Australian Victory, what turned the match
is Li(y)on heart and his 7 wickets in the second innings adding to his 5 in the first innings.
All
three incidents might seem so different, but they had have few things in common
- All of them are tall lanky off-break spinners(Finger spinners) (Swann, Moen Ali, Lyon are right arm off-break and Monty is Left arm off-break-Traditionally Right arm Off spinners will be taken apart by right hand batsman, its not the case here though…)
- All of them are conventional spinners- They don’t experiment much (Neither of them have Doosra or Carrom ball or some xyz mystery delivery)
- All of them concentrate on line and length, looking for revolutions, flight on the ball , where it lands , hitting the roughs rather than trying varieties and spraying away
- Ability to bowl all 6 deliveries in the same spot invariably
- Ability to bowl at reasonably fast spinning deliveries (more than 85-90 kph consistently)
We
can extend the list on and on..
In
addition to these factors, we still have to remind ourselves its our batsman who
gets out rather than they picking up wickets.
Our
batsman’s mindset can be best explained by this statement by Moeen Ali, "They
felt I was an easy target, a guy they could get easy runs from, which has
helped me quite a bit”. He added "If they attack me, now I'm bowling well,
I've got a chance. But they're very good players of spin. I don't know how I'm
getting these wickets but I'm happy to! I feel like I'm on top and I feel I can
get players out."
This
sums up a bowler who can’t even believe he can take a wicket , we allowed him to achieve more than his dream, One
strong reason behind this feat is undoubtedly Indian batsman’s mentality. They
tend to attack (more than they have to ) the spinners as they feel that that is
the only way of scoring runs rather than playing according to the merit of the ball…
Moreover
Indian batsman is kind of resigned to the fact that they can’t score against
the likes of Anderson or Johnson.
If
Indian batsman continue playing with this mindset, gifting wickets is going to
happen more too often. Our batsman’s strategy to slog the spinners failed big
time , Not to take any credit away from the spinners, they trained in a place
where there will be no assistance for spin they stick to their disciplined line
and now they are reaping rich dividends .
India’s
struggle against Spinners has an indirect link with that of the fear on Pacers..
They
prefer facing Moeen or Lyon all day over Anderson or Johnson..
Mind
you , these are quality spinners who stick to their lines and bowl fast at you
(more than a traditional Indian spinner )
"If a bowler bowls fast if it spins or not seams or not swings or not bounces or not invariably we will continue to struggle", this is my theory of Indian batsman's struggle..
Hoping
a better tomorrow
#MCG
We
will discuss more why Indian spin bowlers struggle on these pitches where the
opposite numbers get huge amount of wickets some other time..
Until
then, Take care yourselves
Have
a good one.
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