India were condemned to a second whitewash at home in just over a year, and questions are naturally being raised. What are the issues plaguing the Indian Test side?
Muddled batting positions
The batting order under the current coaching staff has changed virtually from game to game. A two-Test series against Bangladesh was the first assignment for Gautam Gambhir & co. Shubman Gill, the incumbent No.3, retained the spot, but Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant shared the No.4 spot twice each in the four innings as Gambhir tried to maintain a left-right combination.
Then came the New Zealand series, where India were whitewashed 3-0, showing the first signs of disintegration. Sarfaraz Khan scored a fighting 150 in the Bengaluru Test from No.4 when Gill did not play, but was shunted down to No.6 once Gill returned; he even batted at 8 in the other two games. His returns took a hit as a result, and he hasn’t played for India since.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy debacle was more down to application from the batters than the batting order itself, with captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s struggles taking the centrestage. Following the duo’s retirement, Gill dropped himself to the No.4 spot, while Sai Sudharsan was given a run at No.3, doing so in three Tests against England and two against West Indies.
Sai Sudharsan’s best at one down came in the Delhi Test against the West Indies, where he scored 87 in the first innings. With two crucial Tests against South Africa coming up, few thought he’d be removed from the spot. But he was dropped from the Kolkata Test altogether, with Washington Sundar batting at No.3, but returned to take the spot in Guwahati, with Sundar then sent at 8.
Dhruv Jurel was also promoted to No.4 after Gill’s injury, but that was perhaps to make up for the lack of right-handers in the top order and a reward for showing solid form.
Obsession with multi-skilled players
There seemed to be some clarity in the team selections during the tour of England, with players picked for certain roles. Fitness issues and lack of form were the only reasons that all 15 players (and Anshul Kamboj) got at least a game each.
But questions were raised when Nitish Kumar Reddy played both the West Indies Tests: he batted just once and bowled only four overs, even when Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj share over 100 overs together across the two games. Gambhir stressed after the series that they will continue to back Nitish.
India then went into the Kolkata Test with four spinners, three of which were all-rounders, and Nitish was not only dropped but released to play India A’s unofficial ODI series against South Africa A. But Sundar bowled just one over across two innings. Though Gill’s absence hit India badly, why wasn’t a specialist batter picked if one of the three all-rounders was going to bowl just one over?
Nitish then returned to the XI in Guwahati to add a right-hand option in the lineup, but bowled just 10 overs even as Bumrah and Siraj each bowled more than 30 in the first innings itself. With the Ranji Trophy being played parallelly, perhaps calling a proven red-ball batter from the domestic setup to replace Gill, with ample game time under his belt, would have made more sense.
A similar approach has worked for India in T20I cricket, with the likes of Harshit Rana and Shivam Dube preferred over a proven match-winner in Arshdeep Singh, to add batting depth. However, unlike in Test cricket, India have the results to show for their tactic in T20Is.
What pitches do they really want?
India had built their Test dominance over the last decade under Kohli and Ravi Shastri by (somewhat) taking the pitch out of the equation and focusing on how best to pick up 20 wickets. Pune 2017 and Ahmedabad 2021 were exceptions to this rule.
However, since 2023, India have tried to exert their home dominance with rank tuners but failed spectacularly after some success against England and Australia. After being dismantled by New Zealand spinners in Mumbai and Pune, India welcomed the West Indies to more balanced tracks. Both their pacers got purchase from the wicket, sharing 10 wickets in Ahmedabad (including seven on day one) to set up an innings victory.
But in Delhi, they toiled hard to dismiss West Indies, especially in the second innings after enforcing follow-on, on a track that didn’t offer much bounce or spin. Gambhir said after the game that “the first and foremost thing to keep Test cricket alive is playing on good surfaces”, calling for pitches that would suit Bumrah and Siraj, adding “it is okay if there is not enough [turn], but there has to be carry.”
But the next Test that India played at home spun from day one in Kolkata, and after the 30-run defeat, Gambhir said “this is exactly the pitch we were looking for”. Batting coach Sitanshu Kotak contradicted his head coach’s statements while also defending him, saying “no one wanted it [Kolkata wicket] to be like this”.
And then the wicket for the Guwahati Test was a classical Test pitch, so is the team management themselves sure of the pitches they really want? Even then, are they picking the right players for the pitches on offer?
Struggling to fill specific roles
The departures of R Ashwin, Kohli and Rohit were expected to leave gaping holes in the Test team. But even then, six of the 11 players who played the Dharamshala Test against England in March 2024 featured at Guwahati against South Africa; the count would have been seven if Gill was fit.
The chief issue in this regard has been the team’s failure to put confidence in players such as Sai Sudharsan, Sarfaraz, Reddy and Jurel, among others, not by words but by consistency in selection and position. As a result, they have struggled to fulfil specific roles, such as a pressure absorber at No.3, or a quick scorer at No.7 and 8, despite playing a plethora of all-rounders.
These are traits that can be attributed to a team in transition, but confidence could do this set of players, who don’t look short on talent, a world of good.
Experienced players not stepping up
The failure of experienced players to step up has also played a major role. India’s most experienced batters, Kohli and Rohit, couldn’t even score 200 runs each in six innings against New Zealand. Ashwin picked up just nine wickets at 41.22 even as the New Zealand spinners ran the show.
In the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli could score only 90 runs if we take out the 100 in Perth. Rohit batted five innings for just 31 runs, while Ashwin and Jadeja got only five wickets across five bowling innings between them.
Against South Africa, Sundar was the home side’s top-scorer, with KL Rahul, Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal all accumulating less than 100 runs each. Pant, the stand-in captain for the Guwahati Test, couldn’t even add 50 in four innings. Kuldeep Yadav just picked up four wickets in Kolkata. Possibly, even if one of them had played to their potential, the results of both these series could have been a little different.
Among all of this, Sundar's assured performances from every position, and in all conditions, have been a slight positive.
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