New Zealand felt at home in Bengaluru following the rain, and hence it was the pacers who set up their historic eight-wicket win against India, picking 17 of the 20 wickets. But in Pune, where India rolled out a slow turner to challenge the visitors with a spin-heavy attack, the hosts were undone by the same variety. The Kiwis tweakers, led by Mitchell Santner, who picked up a five-wicket haul in both innings, snared 18 wickets to seal the three-match series. While it was a historic win for New Zealand, both in Bengaluru and Pune, the series defeat was India’s first on home soil in 12 years.
As experts sat to dissect the loss in Pune, the primary concern raised was India’s batting struggle against spin. None of the top-order batters looked at absolute ease against the New Zealand spinners, with Virat Kohli being dismissed by left-armer Santner in both innings.
Speaking to Star Sports in the wake of India’s concerning figures against spin, former selector Sunil Joshi launched a scathing attack against the top-orders batters in Rohit Sharma, Kohli, Shubman Gill, asking why they haven’t considered playing domestic cricket to work on their batting against spinners.
“We have forgotten how to plan spin. If our spinners can script victories at home, our batters should learn how to play spin. When will we see our top-order batters go back to play domestic cricket? If you don’t play domestic cricket, you won’t be able to play spinners. Back in the day, every big player would go back to domestic cricket, play a few matches and then go for Test cricket. Why can’t our top-order players do that? Playing domestic cricket is not easy. It’s a challenge in itself,” he said.
The viral Sachin Tendulkar-Ranji Trophy stat
Amidst the talk around the need for the likes of Kohli and Rohit to prioritise domestic cricket, a stat on social media went viral, which highlighted that the former India captain last played a match in Ranji Trophy cricket in 2012, while the legendary Sachin’s last appearance in the tournament was in 2013, the year he announced his retirement from international cricket. Rohit’s last Ranji Trophy game was in the 2015/16 season.
Since 2021, India’s top-5 have averaged 34.84 against spin on Asian soil, which is behind Pakistan (44.46), Sri Lanka (42.19), Australia (38.32), Afghanistan (37.20) and Bangladesh (36.31). Kohli’s numbers have been the most concerning of the top order, having averaged just 28.59 against the variety during this period.
