It's not often that an India-Bangladesh Test series is being looked forward to with such high anticipation. Maybe it has to do with the unusual 42-day break between two international assignments for the Indian cricket team. Maybe it's because Bangladesh did what they did in Pakistan. Maybe it's because the first match of the Test series is in Chennai and the spin woes of the Indian batters in Sri Lanka were exhibited and exposed like never before. Maybe it's because Bangladesh spinners have enough ability to turn the heat on if push comes to shove.
At the start of the year, an India-Bangladesh Test series at home for the two-time World Test Championship finalists might have seemed like a cakewalk. But is it still? Think again! Given how Bangladesh batters, spinners and pacers combined to beat Pakistan on Pindi roads, it's enough indication that the visitors are not the ones to be steamrolled. And given how Sri Lankan spinners made Indian batters dance to their tunes, that three-match ODI series should be a sizeable and timely reminder of how poor they have been against quality spin in conditions which have the juice to be sucked out for the slower bowlers.
The recent ODI series against Sri Lanka was a nightmare for the whole team, the new coach Gautam Gambhir and even the fans, seeing the Indian batting fall like a pack of cards once the opening partnership was broken. As many as 27 wickets fell to spinners as the Sri Lankan attack of Dunith Wellalage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jaffrey Vandersay, Maheesh Theekshana and part-timer Charith Asalanka ate the Indian line-up and left no crumbs. So it didn't matter if India had an opening partnership of 75 in one game or 97 in another, the middle-order was only coming in to bat to leave.
Signs of improvement or numbers not telling the whole story?
Of course, India did well against England at home earlier this year. The combined experience of the England spinners coming into the India series was one. Shoaib Bashir made his debut and Tom Hartley, who is now nowhere near the Test side was also playing for the first time. Hence, you see the player averages against spin what they are - in excess of 50 for the top three.
However, if you take this data cumulatively, the real picture comes through. India lost 62 wickets to spin across five Tests with an average of 37 per dismissal, which is nothing to write home about considering the quality of the spinners and the nature of the surfaces throughout the series. The five-match Test series between India and England produced some of the best surfaces recently in India for the longest format, given that dust bowls were at the disposal of the side, especially in the last two years.
Also since the average per dismissal against pacers stands at 46 for 15 wickets, it can't be denied that the spinners have had a number on the Indian batters of late in Test cricket. Now that we are into the numbers, let's dig a little deeper and go back to the Bangladesh-India series in Bangladesh, where the visitors almost achieved a record that no other Indian team did before that - lose a Test match to Bangladesh.
What happened last time in Bangladesh?
Thanks to Shreyas Iyer and R Ashwin's rescue act, India avoided any mishap but the performances of the batters against Bangladesh spinners in Chattogram and Mirpur would be the less talked about, the better. Cheteshwar Pujara and Iyer were the two best batters for India throughout the series but are no longer with the Test team. The likes of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul averaged 16.5 and 14 respectively against spin in those two Tests in Bangladesh.
Fast forward two years, the same spin trio of Mehidy Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan and Taijul Islam is travelling to India in 2024, now with the confidence of having turned a team upside down away from home. The last time, the trio picked up 25 Indian wickets combined across four innings. Mehidy has his tails up with another 10-wicket haul this time in Pakistan and even though Indian surfaces will provide much better contest between bat and ball, the average per wicket of 33 the last time around is a worrying sign.
It's good that the drop from 37 (during the series against England at home) to 33 (during the Bangladesh series away) isn't too alarming. However, the issue still persists that even at home, the batters have been frail against spin and unable to counter it. The difference between 37 and 33 isn't huge, however, there is a stark contrast in the level of experience and quality among Bangladesh spinners, who have played day-in and day-out in sub-continental conditions, and the three youngsters for England, who despite being inexperienced had their moments in the five-match assignment.
In the recent series against Pakistan, the conditions were more in the batters' favour but regardless of the nature of the surfaces in Rawalpindi, Bangladesh bowled as a unit. On a placid track in the first Test where Pakistan went in with four pacers, Bangladesh dismantled their batting line-up with spin, especially in their second innings. Mehidy picked up four wickets and Shakib three as Bangladesh ended up winning by 10 wickets in the series opener.
A 2-0 win in Pakistan would obviously have their morale high and India would want to take them lightly at their own peril. With Virat Kohli back, India have their first-choice line-up ready for the series, however, there is a slight concern, especially with the top Indian batters' record against spin only.
The 'spin' factor that needs a 'turn'around
Kohli, who has a career average of 58.65 against spin, averages exactly half of it since 2021. In 12 innings, Kohli has been dismissed on seven occasions by the spinners, while it gets murkier for others like Rahul and skipper Rohit Sharma. Rahul's average too gets reduced from 42.7 to 27.8 but Rohit in 32 innings has batted against spin, has been dismissed by spinners on 20 occasions since 2021.
"One of the challenges I wasn't expecting and I kind of overlooked is the playing of spin by Indian batters," Ryan ten Doeschate, the new assistant coach, had told TalkSport Cricket after the horror ODI series against Sri Lanka. And it's not even about Bangladesh or Sri Lanka as venues. Even at home, India lost 198 wickets to spin from the 2019-2024 period while in a similar five-year period from 2001 to 2005, only 138 wickets were lost to spinners at home. And those were the days of Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Danish Kaneria, some of the best spinners this game has seen.
The quality of batting and techniques has only depleted. "We don't get to play world class spinners with arrival of T20 cricket," says Ashok Malhotra speaking exclusively to India TV on the main reason behind the diminishing returns against spin.
The last notable capitulation at home for the Indian batters was back in 2012 when Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar ran riot for England. However, that is only memorable in that regard because India lost that series. It is commendable that Indians haven't dropped a Test assignment at home for over 4000 days since the team is winning, the ability to handle spin which is on the decline, has far too often been ignored as Indian spinners, who always will be superior to their overseas counterparts (unless of course someone like Nathan Lyon) and have been consistently brilliant, papering over the leak for too many times in the past.
The likes of Steve O'Keefe, Lyon, Ajaz Patel and even Bashir and Hartley to some extent have troubled the Indian team in the past. However, the penetrative Indian spinners troubled their batters even more and hence, the hosts prevailed in the final scoreline.
Is it skills or lack of preparation?
Since the advent of the World Test Championship, India started preparing dust bowls to almost force a surrender from the opposition. But not once, quite a few times (Pune and Indore Tests against Australia, Chennai against England in 2021), whenever India have tried to counter the opposition with spin by preparing a turner, they get trapped in their own web. The World Cup final last year is the biggest example of this. But, let's not go into that.
However, the point does stand, that the quality of batting has deteriorated and as ten Doeschate said, it would be the primary focus for him and Abhishek Nayar to sort that out. This is why the quality of surfaces produced for the England series earlier this series was better because on wickets where it's turning just a bit, Indian spinners will be a handful but the minute the tracks start turning square, they bring the opposition spinners into the contest. Thus, the kind of pitch Chennai offers will be in the spotlight.
Challenge for the new coaching staff
"The mindset of India has been such that they've been so desperate to do well overseas," ten Doeschate said. "The focus has moved to doing well in Australia, England [so] that we've kind of let playing spin, which was always a strength of the Indian team, fall back a little bit. That's one thing I'm looking forward to helping with, getting to that position where Indians are the best players of spin in the world again." Malhotra too echoed ten Doeschate's sentiments saying that since the focus is so much on doing well overseas that "domestic circuit is played on Green Tops now so spin automatically takes a back seat."
Ten Doeschate was not wrong! The likes of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, all averaged in excess of 60 in their careers against spin. VVS Laxman too was scoring at 56 against spin. India were always the leader against spin but since the top Indian players don't play domestic cricket anymore and with the IPL being the golden goose it is, the cricket calendar and nature of pitches have gotten flatter and flatter which throws the idea of batters being prepared for all types of challenges out of the window. Hence, the board and the selector's focus has shifted to the top Indian players playing more and more domestic red-ball cricket so that the players are ready for spin and more spin.
However, Malhotra was of a view that even if the stars of the Indian team play in domestic cricket, that might not be as helpful as it is touted to be or expected to be. "If our international batters play domestic cricket they will not be facing any great spinners as there are hardly any good spinners left in domestic circuit so this funda of playing domestic cricket to improve against spin is also a futile idea now... it's not like our days when even in domestic cricket we faced exceptional spin attacks," said Malhotra, who averaged 52.49 in Ranji Trophy scoring over 7,000 runs.
Bangladesh will throw three spinners at them and New Zealand are on their Asian tour with five. There will be challenges and if ten Doeschate and co are able to fulfill the promise, that will be a story to tell.
