Sunil Gavaskar explains why Indian Test batters are failing vs spin

Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has dissected why Indian batters have struggled to bat against spin amid their recent dismal performances.

In Short

• Gavaskar reveals impact of white-ball cricket on batting technique
• India have been dismal against spin at home since 2021
• India are in a precarious position on WTC Points table

Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has highlighted a major flaw in the batting technique of Indian players while playing spin. Notably, India were undone by New Zealand spinners on their home soil as they succumbed to an shambolic 0-3 whitewash for the first time in their Test history. After a disastrous performance, questions have been raised by fans and experts on the batting technique of the players.

Recently, Gavaskar revealed the reason behind India’s woes against spin bowling and mentioned how white-ball cricket has affected their technique. The legendary batter stated how playing a lot of white ball cricket has stopped batters from playing with soft hands which results in their downfall on spinning and seaming tarcks.

“Yes, I think it's it. It it's It's been a situation ever since the White ball game has come in. Uh, the white ball game encourages batters to play with hard hands, where you're looking to push at the ball to get the ball away. Now on pitches where the ball is doing something, whether it is seam swing turn, I think you need to be playing with at least one soft hand, if not two soft hands. And therefore you know that bat speed, which can be then controlled, where the edges, which are now going to the slip fielders would fall just a little short if you played with soft hands. So it's the bat speed that has been the cause, because India is now playing a lot more of the white ball game than test matches,” Gavaskar told India Today.

India's dropping numbers vs spin since 2021

Indian batters have struggled against spinners on home soil since 2021 which is evident in their dropping batting averages. Star batter Virat Kohli had an average of 68.42 at home till 2019 which has now dropped to 29.92 since 2021. Captain Rohit Sharma (88.33 to 35.58) and KL Rahul (44.25 to 29.33) have also experienced significant drops. Hence, the Asian Giants need to turn things around quickly to restart their home dominance after being humbled by New Zealand. They will next travel to Australia where they need to win four out of five Test matches to make it to their third consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) final.