After another poor batting performance in the first innings of second test in bengaluru, Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara came with this statement :
“There is nothing wrong with the Indian batting lineup. We are known to play better against spinners.”
Though after watching Indian batsmen against spinners, it’s looks like just mere a consolation rather than a sound statement.
The sad reality is that : since last few years, Indian batsmen have continuesly been struggling against spinners.
Take a look at statistics :
Aussie rookie left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe’s 12/70 in the first Test in Pune was the best figures by a visiting spinner on Indian soil as India faced a 333-run humiliation.
Over to the Bengaluru Test, and it was off-spinner Nathan Lyon’s 8/50 shot out India for 189 in the first Innings as the home team are in danger of losing their first Test series since their 1-2 defeat to England in December 2012.
Now let us remind you, this trend started from Michael Clarke, who got 6 for 9 against India in Mumbai. Monty Panesar too bagged 12 wickets at Mumbai. More lately there was Dean Elgar and now there has been Stephen O’ Keefe and Natha Lyon. A statement like this after Nathan Lyons 8-fer is a shocker, nothing more, nothing less.
One of the greatest batsman of spin and Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly feels the same as said that he has never seen Australian spinners before the duo of Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe put so much of pressure on an Indian batting line-up in sub-continental conditions.
“Their two spinners are creating pressure from both ends. It’s a strategy which was used by Team India previously,” Ganguly said.
So, it seems clearly there is a problem against spinners. No doubt, team india are usually world beaters in their own backyard and the current no. 1 team in the world. To make things merrier, they were enjoying a 19-Test unbeaten streak.
But, against quality spinners of Australia Team India has not managed to score more than 200 in the series.
The harsh reality is that we are struggling against foreigner spinners, just because there is a big fault in our own domestic system.
A country of Some of the greatest spinners, we are not able to produce same kind of legends anymore, who can turn the ball square. the situation is worse in domestic cricket, where we have only slow bowlers not the spinners. the next generation of spinners want to play in IPL, more than the country. In IPL, economical bowling has more important than taking wickets. So, they prefers to bowl with tight line and length, rather than make let it spin. So, for the Indian batsmen, there are no world class spinners in the domestic cricket, so they can learn the art of playing it well.
This is the real reason of why Indian batsmen are struggling against foreigner spinners.
