Some 40 minutes into day two of the second Test in Pune, a huge roar went up at the MCA International Stadium in Pune. It’s not often that such a reaction greets the fall of a home wicket, but the roar wasn’t because Shubman Gill was dismissed. It was more to welcome the man who would take the No. 3’s place at the batting crease.
Virat Kohli is one of India’s all-time greats, a crowd-puller if there was one. As he strode purposefully to the middle with India on 50 for two in response to New Zealand’s 259, the 20,579 fans at the venue hoped to get their money’s worth, believed that the former captain would make their day.
It took only eight minutes for their hopes to be dashed. In that time, it was clear that Kohli had come armed with a smart game plan that involved opening up his stance and placing his left foot outside the leg-stump to take leg before – which is how Gill was dismissed – out of the equation, but Kohli didn’t last long enough to make that minute adjustment count.
The ninth delivery he faced, from New Zealand’s bowling hero Mitchell Santner, was harmlessly floated up, a full toss that Kohli would have creamed through the covers 11 times out of ten at his peak. He hasn’t been at his peak for a while now, but even so, to see him try to swat it through mid-wicket, miss it completely as his bat hit the pitch, and lose middle-stump was scarcely believable. As he heard the death rattle behind him, Kohli was in shock; Santner experienced the same emotion – ‘He doesn’t usually miss those, usually they go for six’ – and the crowd lapsed into stunned silence, unable to comprehend what was unfolding in front of it.
Kohli was one of nine Indian batters to fall to Kiwi spin on Friday morning, seven to left-arm spinner Santner, two to off-spinner Glenn Phillips. It can happen, of course. Bowlers are there to take wickets, whether they are pacers or spinners. But India have imploded far too often against spin in their own backyard of late for a pattern not to emerge, for whispers about their vulnerability against the turning ball not to gather decibels.
Simon Doull, the former New Zealand paceman, said on commentary that it was a misconception that Indians are still very good players of spin. Having seen them concede wickets in a rush to spinners of all ilk – Australia’s Steve O’Keefe took 12 wickets at this same ground in 2017 while subsequently, India have had their issues against Todd Murphy, Matt Kuhnemann, Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, and even Jeffrey Vandersay, among others – it’s hard to argue with that line of thought. Doull’s assertion isn’t likely to go down well either with India’s fans or the larger Test squad, but the evidence is overwhelming, and the implosions have become increasingly frequent.
End of India’s golden era of spin slayers?
There was a time when the most accomplished of spinners, including Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, Test cricket’s two highest wicket-takers, struggled to make an impression on India’s batters even on spin-friendly pitches. Murali, him of 800 Test wickets at an average of 22.72 and a strike-rate of 55 balls per wicket, took only 40 wickets in India, average 45.45, strike-rate 86.2. Warne averaged 25.41 (strike-rate 57.4) for his 708 wickets; in India, those numbers burgeoned to 43.11 and 81 respectively. He took just 31 wickets in nine Tests in India. These aren’t just two of the greatest spinners of their generation, but of all time. To their misfortune, they ran into some of the most felicitous batters against the turning ball – Mohammad Azharuddin and Navjot Singh initially, then Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir and Soutav Ganguly.
To say that such virtuosos as Murali and Warne were made to appear like journeymen tweakers by India’s wristy, twinkle-toed batters will not be an exaggeration. Today, decent overseas spinners have been catapulted to the ‘outstanding’ category by a set of batters who have an impressive volume of work overall, but whose susceptibility against the turning has also been ruthlessly exposed.
In conditions that they have grown up in, and against bowling of the kind they encounter – or would have when they used to play domestic cricket regularly – India were found wanting on Friday too. Santner finished with seven for 53 while Phillips, slightly more than a part-time office, picked up two. India were shot out for 156, their uncertainties evident from their decision-making at the crease. There is a problem, definitely, whether one wants to accept it or not.
