India have lost four Test matches at home in the last one year, the same number they lost in the preceding 12 years. What has gone wrong?
For more than a decade, India treated home Test defeats as anomalies. You turned up, and more often than not, you won. Between January 2013 and September 2024, they lost just four Tests at home, won 18 consecutive series, and claimed 42 of 53 matches. A new generation – they call themselves GenZ – grew up believing that losing at home simply wasn’t part of the Indian cricketing vocabulary. Governments changed, squads reshaped, eras ended, yet one constant held: the home fortress was a badge of identity, a source of collective swagger and a quiet matter of pride.
The past twelve months have shattered that legacy. Four Test defeats in a single year have chipped away at a wall of fame, built brick by brick by overzealous achievers. The question now hovers: is this a mere lapse in form, or is it a reluctance to confront one’s own weaknesses?
Bringing the pitches under the scanner
Last year, in Mumbai, facing a rare 0-2 series deficit and the looming threat of a whitewash against New Zealand, the Indian management requested a wicket tailored to their apparent strengths: a rank-turner from day one, designed to give their spinners an early foothold. They were relying on a tried-and-tested formula to wrest control back from New Zealand. In Pune, the pitch was also slow, but less extreme. At Wankhede, Ajaz Patel picked up 11 wickets, despite ESPNCricinfo stating that he got only 66 per cent of his deliveries to land on a good length. Further, he threatened the stumps just 48% of the time.
However, 57 per cent of his balls turned more than five degrees, and 32 per cent bounced outside the normal range. That degree of unpredictability proved decisive, giving him a match-winning edge despite not being the most accurate bowler. In the previous Test, at Pune, it was Mitchell Santner who adapted perfectly to yet another turner, bowling consistently slower than India’s spinners but generating 39 per cent high-turn deliveries.
In contrast, R Ashwin bowled 19 per cent of his deliveries with a five-degree angle and Ravindra Jadeja 23 per cent. The Indian duo maintained superior accuracy, yet the surfaces allowed the visitors to extract far more deviation than usual, effectively neutralising India’s traditional home advantage. Even at Eden Gardens, another big turner, Simon Harmer picked up an eight-for, while India’s four spinners combined to pick up just 10 wickets across the game.
This pattern is being reinforced on a broader scale. Since 2020, visiting spinners have picked up 13 five-fors, a steep increase from the five instances in the five years before. While the need for result-oriented wickets has been amplified due to the World Test Championship, these surfaces have instead narrowed the skill gap.
It has also created uncertainty for India’s batters, while allowing opposition spinners to exploit exaggerated turn and inconsistent bounce. Since the start of 2020, when the Indian wickets have started favouring opposition spinners more, their batting average against the slower bowlers has fallen to 31.39 from 47.27 between January 2015 and December 2019. With batters adopting defensive techniques anticipating an extreme turn, even a straighter delivery suddenly becomes threatening. As a result, Indian batters can no longer be considered dominant against spin, so what purpose are the extreme pitches serving?
Or is it adamance?
After the Delhi Test against the West Indies last month, which stretched into five days on a slow, flat wicket that offered little help to the pacers, Gambhir lamented the lack of carry: “We all thought we could have had a better wicket. Yes, we got a result on day five, but I think the nicks need to carry, there needs to be something for the fast bowlers as well. We talk a lot about spinners playing a role, but when you have two quality fast bowlers in your ranks, you want them in the game as well. I thought the carry wasn’t there, which was a bit alarming.”
The contradiction is unmissable. In Delhi, Gambhir criticised a spin-friendly pitch for failing to aid the pacers, even after a win. In Kolkata, and in Mumbai before, the management actively pursued extreme spin and unpredictable bounce – conditions that ultimately favoured the visitors. India complains when conditions assist both team, yet insists on hyper-spin that can backfire against its own batters and bowlers.
This selective rigidity is what might be called “adamance.” The focus has shifted from reading conditions to trying to control them, often at the expense of the team’s strengths. Between 2012 and 2020, India’s most commanding home performances came on balanced pitches that allowed spinners to dominate while ensuring a fair, intense contest. The current obsession with designing surfaces to exact specifications compresses matches into chaotic phases, where visiting sides can thrive if they are prepared, even without India’s depth of talent. It also indirectly signals a lack of trust in their own bowler's ability to outlast the visiting sides.
Kolkata further drove the point home. India fielded four spinners, including Washington Sundar at No. 3, ahead of two specialist batters. Such a selection, in a country brimming with top-order talent, sends a strange message to the domestic system. Is the coach’s attachment to a preferred template of filling the team with all-rounders making a mockery of the system? Meanwhile, international players are still expected to grind in first-class cricket when available. The result is ironic and, in a way, almost comedic.
The pressing question now is not whether India can win on their own terms, but what Gambhir’s philosophy will ultimately yield. Selections appear haphazard, and constant chopping and changing – even in T20Is – signal a team still searching for clarity. It is as if challenges are manufactured for the sake of it, only to leave players scrambling when outcomes do not match the plan. And GenZ doesn’t need to grow up on that Indian cricket.
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