Ricky Ponting believes India may have their own cricket governance to blame for a decline in batting against spin in recent years.
Historically, India have been the masters of spin — both with ball and bat.
LIVE AND FREE Australia v India first Test on Seven and 7plus Sport
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
Spin-friendly conditions in India over time has fostered not only some of the great slow bowlers of all time, but some of the game’s best batters against spin.
Champions of the past like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly excelled against spin, while modern stars Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have dominated the slow bowling more recently.
But that’s not true for the past few years in particular.
Since 2021, India’s top seven have averaged about 37 against spin. In the four years prior to that, they averaged over 63.
That’s a drop of about 40 per cent.
Kohli’s form has plummeted so much so that he now appears a shell of his former self, while Pujara’s struggles against spin have cost him his place in the side.
Ponting thinks he knows why it’s happened.
“It’s actually been a bit of a knock, hasn’t it, on the Indian batsmen in the last seven or eight years — and there’s a lot of talk about it — how they’re potentially not as good players of spin as they once were,” he said on Channel 7 during Day 1 of the first Test on Friday.
“I’ve got a bit of a theory on that.
“If you wind the clock back 10 years ago, India found it hard to win Test matches outside of India — because of their conditions (at home).
“So, what did they do? They produced greener wickets in India to try and bring on and promote fast bowling more, so they ended up a be a bigger crop of fast bowlers that they’ve got now, which has allowed them to have more success away from home.
“But has that had a negative effect on the batters? Are the batters still playing on those dusty, spinning wickets in the Ranji Trophy?”
Ponting’s former teammate Matthew Hayden, who famously conquered the tough Indian pitches during the historic 2001 tour that Australia won against India, said the problem goes back much further than the past few years.
“Ricky Ponting raised a really interesting question, because there is no doubt, statistically, that the middle order for India has been in decline since the ‘90s,” Hayden said on Channel 7.
“There was a time when they were really getting hundreds and lots of them. The frequency of hundreds at that particular time: 33 matches, there were 29 hundreds, through the 90s.
“And then as you go through the eras, 2000 to 2010, the frequency came back down, as did the average.
“Ricky was saying, just to restate it, that potentially in the Ranji Trophy (India’s domestic competition) they have allowed for greener wickets and that’s allowed the seam bowling attack, which has brought seamers into play across the world, and that’s made them more competitive away from home.
“But potentially because they are not playing on the dustbowls in the Ranji Trophy, that the middle order hasn’t made the adjustment accordingly to that, and that’s why there’s been a decline. But it’s also their decline of playing spin as well.”
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar — after whom the trophy for which India and Australia play off is named, along with Aussie great Alan Border — agrees that the domestic change has made a difference at the international level.
“It’s a very good point that Ricky makes,” Gavaskar said.
“Clearly with the pitches having a lot more grass for the Ranji Trophy, a lot of the new-ball bowlers, sometimes pretty ordinary bowlers, are getting six wickets or seven wickets in an innings and the spinners hardly ever get a bowl.
“And so what happens is that when it comes to playing on a pitch where the ball is gripping and turning, as we saw against New Zealand, they were struggling.”
New Zealand shocked the world earlier this month when they completed an unbelievable 3-0 clean sweep of India in India, a feat that seemed impossible for any touring nation, given their dominance at home.
“They were struggling because they were not used to going down the pitch to try and counter spin,” Gavaskar went on.
“The response was: a couple of dot balls, swing your bat. If you connect, great, if you don’t connect, you know you are going to be out. And that’s what happened.
“So, the patience also that is required for playing spin bowling or playing a first-class game, a four-day game, or a or a five-day game, is not there.
That’s one of the reasons why India hasn’t been as good a player of spin bowling as earlier.”
Hayden added: “Patience — what’s that word in the modern game? You think back to Pujara, just how long he occupied the crease when he was playing here.
“That was my challenge to this team and it’s the same to this Australian team as well; who is going to bat time?”
LIVE AND FREE Australia v India first Test on Seven and 7plus Sport
