Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has analyzed why Indian batters struggled against spin in their recent ODI series loss to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka secured a 2-0 series win after the first ODI ended in a tie, marking their first ODI series victory against India in 27 years.
During the series, India lost 27 wickets to spin, a record for any three-match bilateral series. Jeffrey Vandersay was particularly effective, taking 8 wickets, including 6 in the second ODI, which significantly troubled the Indian batting lineup.
In the initial two matches, openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave India solid starts. However, once the opening stand was broken, the batting collapsed. Rohit’s early dismissal during the run chase of 249 in the third ODI led to another collapse, and India lost the match by 110 runs.
This series loss was Gautam Gambhir’s first as coach. Previously, he had guided India to a T20I series victory against Sri Lanka, his debut stint with the team. The inability of the Indian batting unit to handle spin was a key issue highlighted during the series.
Aakash Chopra has tried explaining in his recent YouTube video as to what the Indian batters did wrong in their attempt to play spin against Sri Lanka.
“See we play the spinners decently well in red-ball cricket. The Indian batters do not face any problems on normal spinning tracks be it red-ball or white-ball cricket. So we play well on spin-friendly pitches.
“But on pitches where there is a little more turn than normal like it was in Colombo, where the ball gets a bit slow and turns and stops and comes onto the bat slowly, it is there that our batters face problems countering spin,” said Chopra.
He further took examples of pitches like the ones in Pune, Indore, and recently in Colombo where the pitches offering a little more turn than expected posed problems to the Indian batters. They then look like very ordinary batters and the element of class and confidence is not there.
India’s Struggle Against Spin May Just Continue: Aakash Chopra
“We have struggled in pitches like Pune, Indore, and the recent series in Colombo where our batters struggled again spin. Our batters look like ordinary players when batting on pitches that provide a little more extra turn, this has been our problem. We are not practicing enough again spin bowling.
“We are playing white-ball cricket on pitches that are flat and do not offer more turn. These batters do not play domestic cricket enough and even if they play the pitches do not have enough turn to challenge the batters. We have struggled against spin from time to time and that may just continue,” Chopra concluded.
The Indian team coped with severe criticism after losing the ODI series against Sri Lanka where they did not play spin well. The Men in Blue play just three more ODIs before the Champions Trophy next year in Pakistan and they need to address this weakness besides finding the core team that can be good enough to win the Champions Trophy.
