Once regarded as masters against spin, India’s Test team has struggled in spin-friendly conditions in recent years. The decline has been even more pronounced at home, once considered an impenetrable fortress,
where India have now lost five of their last seven Tests.
The Shubman Gill-led side is now preparing for its next Test assignment – a two-match tour of Sri Lanka, a country renowned for spin-friendly conditions. Given their struggles, former India wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta has reservations about how the visitors will cope with the challenge.
According to Dasgupta, India’s batting remains a concern, especially with Sri Lanka expected to prepare surfaces that favour spin.
“If there are bowling-friendly pitches, then automatically there are good bowlers. Saransh (Jain) has also come (in Indian squad), who is a good off-spinner and a person who has been playing first-class cricket for a long time. He can also bat well. In fact, in a Test match, he may not need it that much, and hopefully not,” Dasgupta said on his YouTube channel.
“But you have those options in the absence of Washington. Saransh has also got the option of off-spin. You have left-arm spinners and Kuldeep too. I am not as much concerned about bowling as I am about batting. If we talk about batting, if we look at the South Africa and New Zealand series – we have seen a new batting order in South Africa. If we look at it from there, I will not say it is fear, but it is a concern,” he added.
Dasgupta feels India‘s biggest challenge of the tour will be tackling Sri Lanka’s spin attack.
“How will they be able to play in those conditions? Because there will be spinning conditions. There will be turning conditions because their strength is spin bowling. In those conditions, how does India play? How do Indian batters handle it? That is going to be the biggest challenge, according to me,” he said.
“Especially in Sri Lanka, again, Sri Lanka, I mean, it has been very, very difficult in the past and especially in these conditions right now,” he added.
India will resume their campaign in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship cycle with the Sri Lanka tour – after a long break.
Their previous assignment in the competition was the two-match series against South Africa last November. Since then, they have played only one Test – against Afghanistan in June this year,
Having lost four of their first eight Tests in the current WTC cycle, India will need a strong finish in their remaining matches to keep their hopes of reaching the final alive.
“I think it’s going to be interesting when looking at the WTC. I think there are nine test matches left. Five with Australia, two with Sri Lanka, and two with New Zealand, and if I’m not wrong, roughly speaking, I think seven out of nine will have to be won to qualify for the WTC finals. So, that in itself is a difficult task,” Dasgupta said.
“On top of that, you add Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, New Zealand in New Zealand. These are difficult assignments. On top of that, as it has been, if we look at it, if we count series after series, if we don’t count Afghanistan’s one-off test, then in the last three series at home, we have lost two to New Zealand and South Africa. So, that is one thing, obviously, that’s why you can’t take any series, and opposition at this time and in any condition, lightly at all,” he added.
