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Are the Test stars playing enough domestic cricket?

S. Dinakar

India’s finest players of spin in the series were openers Sehwag and Gambhir
The lack of preparation hurt India

Chennai: Are the Indian batsmen lesser players of quality spin bowling because they do not play enough domestic cricket? Are they increasingly vulnerable to flight, turn and guile in the longest format of the game?

Former India captain and an accomplished batsman against spin, Ajit Wadekar, certainly believes so. Speaking to The Hindu on Tuesday, he said, “We are not paying enough attention to Test cricket, which is the genuine form of the game.”

In Sri Lanka’s 2-1 Test series triumph over India, debutant spinner Ajantha Mendis claimed 26 wickets and the experienced Muttiah Muralitharan, 21. In other words, the famous Indian batsmen were foxed by spin on sub-continental tracks.

Ironically, India’s finest players of spin in the series were its openers — Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

The globe trotting Indian batsmen, increasingly fed on a diet of pace, came up short when it faced two outstanding spinners in Sri Lanka. Mendis and Muralitharan ran rings around the Indian batsmen.

In fact, even lesser spinners have managed to turn Tests against India in recent times. South Africa’s left-armer Paul Harris, operating from over-the-wicket, had Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid — both crease-tied — in a tangle during a series turning phase of the decider in Cape Town early last year. Interestingly, the Test was played on a slow, sub-continental-type surface. India lost.

Busy schedule

Wadekar concedes it is increasingly difficult for the stars to take part in domestic competitions due to a busy schedule of Tests and ODIs and the Twenty20 leagues. He, however, points out that the entire Indian squad, and not parts of it, could have undergone a 10 or a 15-day camp ahead of a major Test series.

“We have to get our priorities right. In the ODIs, a spinner cannot bowl more than ten overs and it is only four in a Twenty20 game. The entire approach of a spinner changes in a Test, the field placings are completely different. You need to see off spells without being negative. You need to prepare mentally and tactically,” says Wadekar.

He adds, “When the entire team gets together, you sit down and chart out a strategy. You anticipate different situations, have a game-plan. You discuss each bowler, about how you would counter them as a pack.”

It is impossible to assemble in a hurry and take on a well-prepared and a cohesive side such as Sri Lanka on its home soil, he says.

The lack of preparation hurt India. Some of the Indian batsmen, with disastrous consequences, attempted to play Mendis off the pitch. Wadekar makes a distinction between “playing” forward and “groping” forward.

“They did not use their feet enough. They should have stepped out more often,” Wadekar says. On the few occasions, Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly jumped out, they succeeded with the tactic.

However, when self doubt crept in, their footwork was adversely impacted. “Mendis and Murali bowled well but were also allowed to do so. They created the pressure, changed the angles, bowled over and round the wicket, but surely our batsmen had the credentials to cope with them better.”

We return to the same question — Are our batsmen not playing enough domestic cricket?

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