“Photo D-5606L” by public.resource.org is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Spin and cricket in India have gone hand in hand since any of us can remember. Against the turning ball, the impregnable techniques of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, and VVS Laxman set the gold standard, deservedly giving Team India the reputation as the best players of spin. But following their retirements, has this view been falsely projected onto the modern era of Indian batters? The historic 3-0 series loss at home against the Black Caps has revived discussions around playing spin, what constitutes ‘home advantage’ for India, and the immediate future of their batting personnel
The New Zealand Men’s cricket team (a.k.a the ‘Black Caps’, a.k.a the ‘Kiwis’): international cricket’s perennial underdogs, 2nd favourite team of most non-New Zealand cricket fans outside of the patriotic ties that bind them to their home nations, and all-round ‘good guys’ of the sport.
No matter the format, write them off at your peril. Yet, for almost 2 decades many have been guilty of doing so despite the overwhelming evidence suggesting that the Black Caps are a damn good side.
I mean, after all, we are talking about the winners of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC). We are talking about a side that has consistently been within the top 4 or 5 Test-playing nations, by ranking, and at times scaling that peak.
Add to that all the semi-finals and finals they have reached since the International Cricket Council 50-over World Cup in 2007, there is no doubt that the Black Caps always deliver.
So why are they not spoken of in the same terms as some of the great cricket teams we have seen?
Perhaps this sentiment towards the Black Caps will simply, and unfairly, remain one of international cricket’s absolutes. But in many ways, this may well be what helps them get up for the fight.
Until the Black Caps touched down late-2024, there had been 42 completed Test series in India since March 6, 2000.
Why is this date significant?
Well, this was the last time an Indian team found themselves on the wrong side of a whitewash at home. At that time, it came at the hands of a Hansie Cronje-led South African outfit who walked away 2-0 victors.
Following that series loss, India would slowly set about raising a new, exceedingly lofty bar for home-team superiority.
Aside from losing 2 series (one to the legendary Australian team in 2004, and another to one of England’s greatest ever Test outfits in 2012/13), every ground across India was fast-becoming an almost unbreachable fortress.
The loss to England in 2012/13 was all they needed to be spurred on to become the India we now know as, from that point, they would proceed to set a world-record, 18 consecutive home series wins over the next 12-year period.
Test cricket’s final frontier has long remained the dreaded tour of India for these reasons – a place where success is rare from a visiting side, and sustained competition of any kind is seldom seen.
It was against this backdrop that the Black Caps set about accomplishing the unthinkable. New Zealand’s 3-0 triumph over the hosts in November 2024 was only the 3rd series win by a visiting team since 2000. Unimaginably, this was also the first ever whitewash in India, for India, in a series of 3 Tests or more.
So, how did this unfold?
And for the hosts, does this series finally mark the end of an era of home dominance? Is it time for a new cast of main characters to push the story along in the next act of Men’s Test cricket in India?
In a spin
The biggest hurdle facing any touring team to India is the predictable unpredictability of the surfaces they will be presented with. The only known quantity is that they will spin.
Spin-conducive pitches are nothing new in India. However, over the last few years the pitches have spun quicker, earlier, and further. Tests are no longer seen as a war of attrition, but rather a game of hot potato between bowler and batter where, at some point, things are going to blow.
Games finish within 2 or 3 days. Swift 30s and flashy 60s are the new 100s and 150s. And the days of record-breaking Indian batsmanship grinding hapless fielding oppositions into the dirt for 2 days at a time have become sparse.
Batting patience and circumspection from times gone by are no longer in vogue – something not just exclusive to Tests in India, mind you. Instead, the sacred norms of Test match batting have been replaced with unyielding aggression and an ever-too-present ‘I will get you before you get me’, kamikaze-esque mentality.
In this way, Test cricket in India over the last 5 years has seen a dramatic evolution before our eyes – one that has made for a new, modern challenge for teams touring India.
Facing spin and finding ways to score in the current era of Indian pitches is one thing. But perhaps more importantly, going after India’s own tweakers has never had so much riding on it.
Understanding the significance of the Ashwin-Jadeja axis
In the modern era, the success of the Indian Men’s Test team, at home, has largely rested on the shoulders of 2 players: Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Since his Test debut in 2011, Ashwin has taken 536 Test wickets (at the time of writing this). Of these, a whopping 383 (71.5%) have come in India alone at an average of 21.57 and a strike rate of 46.0. On top of this, 29 of his 37 5-wicket hauls have come on home soil, as have 6 of his 8 10-wicket hauls.
His partner in crime, Jadeja, who debuted in Tests a year later in 2012, has racked up 319 wickets of his own in all, of which 238 (74.6%) have come on Indian soil at a superior average of 20.71 and a strike rate of 51.2. In terms of 5-wicket hauls, 13 of his 15 have come at home, as have all his 10-wicket hauls (3).
Then there is the matter of how they have operated together in unison and the sheer impact their contributions have had over India’s overall success.
Before the start of the series against the Black Caps, India had only lost 5 out of 55 Tests (home and away) when both Ashwin and Jadeja had taken the field together:
Ravichandran Ashwin, one half of Team India’s irreplaceable spin-bowling axis since 2011/12
“R Ashwin bowling at Trent Bridge 2018 (cropped)” by Dun.can from Leicestershire, UK is licensed under CC BY 2.0
In short, these two spin savants, whose careers serendipitously coincided almost from the very beginning, have single-handedly neutered all visiting teams who have dared to stamp even an iota of authority over India.
The impact and longevity of Ashwin and Jadeja at home have hinged upon their exceptional talents which go above and beyond those of their peers and contemporaries (with the exception of Australia’s Nathan Lyon).
Additionally, their knack of complementing each other’s skill sets have left batters with no where to go.
Ashwin offers spin of the classical, more conventional fashion with flight, guile, variation in pace, and subtle manipulation of seam position and trajectory through the air. Jadeja, on the other hand, is a prime example of the modern day spinner whose modus operandi is to bowl fast, straight, and attack the pads and wickets at all times – if there is turn (which there usually is), that is a bonus.
When they operate in tandem, as they so often have, batters have no wiggle room for error. All modes of dismissal are in play; Ashwin can prise you out, bowl you through the gate, and have you caught around the bat, while Jadeja ceaselessly looks to breach your defences or trap you in front.
Ally all this with their pinpoint accuracy, loose deliveries are few and far between. The more you play out balls – if you can – the more the pressure builds.
“Do I look to play them out, and wait for the bad ball to put away? Or maybe I can see these two off and then go after the next bowler. No, we need to be clear. Let us put the pressure back on them and set them back. Time to take a few risks, hit over the top, and score a few boundaries to break the shackles!”
This is presumably some of the self-talk (or variations thereof) that goes on in the batter’s mind, or between the batters in the middle, while plotting a path forward against Ashwin and Jadeja.
And if you do get lucky and survive the test of spin, you may just have a certain Jasprit Bumrah waiting to run in at you.
In this situation, where do the runs come from?
The Black Caps' ever-reliable planning and uncanny ability to rally together underpinned their success against spin in India
They are often said to ‘punch above their weight’.
Since Sir Richard Hadlee’s and Martin Crowe’s time, they have admittedly lacked what the general consensus would deem truly legendary Test-match cricketers – or at the very least players of Hadlee’s and Crowe’s ilk. Yet somehow, the team has found a way of always staying on par with, and at times even ahead of, the international cricket pack when it has mattered most.
However, there is one thing the Black Caps have rarely been criticised for – their impeccable planning and decision-making. Hardly ever have they lost big series, or lost consistently, due to poor strategising.
Situational awareness, a level-head, and clear roles to compensate for the lack of mavericks have always proved to be their main calling cards.
And in this monumental series victory against India, all of their tactical nous came to the fore in a way that saw the Black Caps play the only way they know how – as a unified team, with the overall output greater than the sum of its parts.
So what did New Zealand do that other teams have failed to do in India in the last decade?
Batting is about scoring runs, but smart runs. Attack when the going is good, but then rein it in when the situation demands it or the oppositions are on top. This is exactly what the Black Caps did. And with the ball, given the surfaces they were going to be faced with they were willing to stand toe-to-toe with India’s spin battery with a slew of spinners of their own at captain Tom Latham’s beck and call.
They recognised from the outset that adhering to these paradigms would be pivotal in remaining competitive across the 3 Tests.
Few have prospered when blindly attempting to crack the Ashwin-Jadeja axis or any other spinner India have put forth in recent times.
Just look at the England’s most recent tour to India.
After a sublime knock of 196 from Ollie Pope in the 1st Test – an innings that was a rare exhibition of proactive, but smart, run scoring from a visiting batter – England leant too far into their now not-so-novel ‘Bazball’ mantra. Regular batting collapses and record-breaking margins of defeat became the order of the day, revealing that there was no Plan B to turn to when things got dicey.
Ajaz Patel’s honeymoon in India continues, with 32 of his total 85 career Test wickets coming in India alone across just 5 games
“1 33 Ajaz Patel” by Dave Morton is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Where England ventured into self-indulgent territory after the win in the 1st Test, the Black Caps ensured their batters maintained a strong sense of situational awareness and level-headedness across all 3 Tests, regardless of the hype that followed after each of their first 2 wins.
Batters looked to have designated roles with some assigned to be attackers and others allowed to be more classical, but with the willingness to adapt when the passage of play demanded it.
Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, and Glenn Phillips led the charge in terms of attacking with impunity, finishing with the highest strike rates among the Black Caps’ main batters at 61.68, 76.19, and 65.89, respectively.
Contrastingly, Tom Latham and Will Young adopted the anchor roles with strike rates of 56.20 and 53.04, respectively, affording Conway, Ravindra, and Phillips more freedom to score quickly.
Daryl Mitchell held down the crucial Number 5 position which can be a make-or-break role. An early collapse may demand circumspection from this batter, but an established platform can invite continued aggression. This ability to tailor one’s game according to his surroundings and game situation was aptly demonstrated by his match-influencing 82 off 129 balls in the final Test.
And with the ball in hand, the ask was simple. After the 1st Test on a seamer-friendly wicket (which again the Black Caps shrewdly selected for with 3 seamers), the pitches for the remaining 2 Tests left little to the imagination for both sides: everything came up spin.
New Zealand were not afraid to bolster their spin ranks at the expense of a seamer that had tasted prior success, allowing skipper Latham to have 3 to 4 spinners in Mitch Santner, Ajaz Patel, Ish Sodhi, and Glenn Phillips, all with points of difference, at his disposal.
Furthermore, the strategic use of certain spinners to certain batters, such as left-arm spin to Virat Kohli, was also noticeable.
The Black Cap’s victory over India was not one of luck alone. Luck may have been on their side given the conditions and India’s proud history at home, but cricketing smarts outshone all other attributes during this 3-Test series.
The Black Caps confirmed that Team India are no longer the shining example of playing spin bowling they once were
The dominance of Team India at home in the 21st century has generally been built upon 4 overarching strategies:
- Bat the visiting opposition spinners out of the game, minimising or eliminating their threat – a skill honed over years of playing the turning ball in their native conditions
- Amass huge totals, and look to bat once and bat big when the pitch is at its best before handing it over to the bowlers to finish the job as batting conditions deteriorate
- Out-spin the visiting opposition batters and spinners by leveraging the ability to get the best out of native conditions better than the opponent
- Curating balanced, fair pitches that allow for 1) to 3) to take its course
Think back to the golden and nostalgia-filled years of Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly, who would routinely plunder 400-450 runs between them before allowing MS Dhoni to put the finishing touches on the innings as they secured totals in excess of 550. Once that onslaught was over, the reins would be handed over to Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to, with a little help from Zaheer Khan, skittle the opposition as quickly as possible.
If there was ever a blueprint for the prototypic victory for the Indian team at home, this was it. In fact, at the point of writing this, of Team India’s total 39 innings victories at home in their history, 24 of these have come in the 21st century.
Nonetheless, as India’s Test batting stalwarts each started to hang up their boots, along with the rise of T20 cricket and the Indian Premier League (a topic for another feature), things slowly started to shift.
The urge to produce rank turners from Ball 1 has brought in the opposition more, potentially turning a ‘home advantage’ into a ‘home disadvantage’
During the much-revered partnership of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri between 2014/15 and 2021, it was stated in no uncertain terms that if India were to have any success away from home, they needed to focus on fleshing out a pace battery.
In order to do this, generally pitches need to be prepared to encourage fast bowlers – flatter and harder, but still with the tendency to spin later on so as to not rule out that dimension of the game. A welcome by-product of this was it also promoted the construction of long innings with the bat and accruing big runs, the recipe for success in most parts of the world.
Moreover, producing pitches like this also emphasised just how good Ashwin and Jadeja were, highlighting the gulf in class between them and their opposition counterparts when any spin was on offer.
During the England tour in 2021, the biggest and most contentious talking point was the state of the pitches. They were no longer “traditional” wickets, nor were they the sort of wickets one would expect (even at their most extreme) if you were touring India during the decade prior.
Instead, the pitches produced were reminiscent of a minefield, not too dissimilar to the pitch from the final Test against Australia in 2004 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The pitch, on which batter Michael Clarke (also debuting that series) took 6-9, garnered disapproval from players and administrators, including former Indian Test captain, Dilip Vengsarkar, who said “the pitch was unsuitable for Test cricket”.
Funnily enough, much like Clarke did, Joe Root’s part-time off spin picked up 5-7 in the 3rd Test of their 2021 tour, raising concerns again about the suitability of the Test pitches being prepared in India.
While the pitches drew the ire of many, they were equally defended by many, including Michael Atherton, who felt extreme pitches, on occasion, are part of the many challenges international Test cricket throw up.
After all, no country will want to pass up ‘home advantage’.
But in India’s case, have they started to go too far? This question is not posed for the sake of the game’s integrity or the tenuous concept of the ‘Spirit of Cricket’, but more so for the fact that these intense conditions are now appearing to handicap their own team.
Excessively spin-friendly pitches close the gap between the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja and their opposite numbers, bringing anyone with the ability to spin the ball even a little into the game in a big way (such as a Clarke, a Root, or even a Glenn Phillips).
This would not ordinarily be an issue if India continued to win games they were expected to. But with every home series, more cracks have started to appear on a batting unit that is both ageing and dwindling in their powers.
The numbers behind Team India’s batting decline against spin at home
Statistics are not everything, but over an extended period of time they tell us all we need to know. It is no different with the decline in the Indian batters’ records, at home, vs spin since 2021.
Although a small dip is seen against pace from 2021 to the start of the team’s 2024 home summer, it is far from worrisome. However against spin, the returns of India’s top 7 have deteriorated massively from 2016-2020 to 2021 onwards, with the combined average dropping from 63.36 to 37.56 (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Comparison of the collective batting average of India’s top 7 against spin at home between 2016-2020 and 2021 onwards
When putting specific players under the microscope, Virat Kohli’s struggles stand out the most between the 2 time frames, with an average of 103.23 during 2016-2020 plummeting to a mere 30.26 from 2021 onwards (Figure 2). Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul have also all endured substantial dips in their outputs against spin on home soil.
Figure 2. Breakdown of individual batting averages against spin at home between 2016-2020 and 2021 onwards
Where has the decisive footwork against spin gone?
Playing spin in the subcontinent has always proven to be Test cricket’s greatest challenge, with very few batters truly mastering these conditions.
Among those who have from an Indian standpoint are the ‘Galácticos’: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly.
Their ability to neutralise the threat of spin is what a lot of fans and analysts recall most. Not only that, but they did this against the very best on spin-conducive tracks in India, including the late Shane Warne (averaged 43.11 in 9 Tests) and Muttiah Muralitharan (averaged 45.45 in 11 Tests).
What did they do that made them stand out against spin?
As an on-looker, their commitment to front-foot or back-foot play was typically crisp and decisive. They would go well back to cut square (as Dravid used to), or get right to the pitch of the ball to smother any spin (a skill Tendulkar and Laxman did especially well) – never was there any uncertain middle ground when they were playing well.
Above all else, shots were rarely manufactured in the Test arena, with every ball played on its merit.
This has been the case too for visiting batters who have toured India recently.
Michael Clarke, Sir Alastair Cook, Steven Smith, Joe Root, Hashim Amla, AB De Villiers, and even Kevin Pietersen, have all played knocks of the highest quality in India that have revolved around the same philosophies adopted by Tendulkar and Co.
In the current era, this decisiveness seems to have gone missing.
We live in an era where attacking batsmanship is now the default as a result of T20 slog-athons and increasingly bowler-friendly Test pitches in certain countries to capitalise on ‘home advantage’. But we also live in an era where the Decision Review System (DRS) has dramatically benefitted spin bowlers.
More leg-before-wicket dismissals are given, meaning batters can no longer pad the ball away as freely as was once possible pre-2010. Therefore the parameters involved in adjudicating whether a batter can be given out or not if struck on that pad has led to an evolution in batting techniques and approaches, in which batters feel compelled to always play with the bat and push at balls that batters once would not have.
A regression in batters’ competency in picking spin has also led to the, often, hasty deployment of the sweep shot and its many variants, a feature of modern Test-match batting at large. There is a sense that touring batters occasionally lean on the influence of ‘home advantage’ for the hosts as a crutch to excuse their lack of all-round game in harsher climates.
It all boils down to the natural course the sport has taken, and a reaction to its ever-changing landscape. The game we see now is not an identical game to the one played by the Indian batters of the 1990s and 2000s.
That said, can more be done by Team India’s current crop (and those who follow) to play a game against spin that more closely resembles that of their iconic predecessors?
The exuberance of youth needs to be tamed, or offset with a calmer head at the other end
Another compounding factor that has added to the difficulties DRS has put forth for batters in the Test format has been the diffusion of the T20 mindset into the longest format.
With the sheer volume of franchise cricket played, that too on flatter wickets which demand continuous boundary hitting, swinging the blade hard has never been easier for the modern batter – a far cry from the more conservative approaches of past eras.
Consequently, batters now trust their defence – a fundamental skill in Test cricket – less and less.
The playing conditions of Test cricket have not changed in the way limited overs cricket have. Test cricket is still very much its own game which requires a robust and adaptable skill set comprising both attacking and defensive traits. Without it, it is almost impossible to flourish with any real degree of longevity across conditions.
Batters of today do not always view it this way. Rather, the tougher the pitches get, the more shots are played – a tactic usually backed up by the rationale, ‘there will be a ball with my name on it, so it is better to score some quick runs’.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this ideology. Among the players, this approach has become normalised to the point it is now epidemic in Test cricket – rightly or wrongly. But when an entire batting unit goes down this path, as we have seen with ‘Bazball’, we see time and time again that the outcomes continue to be self-destructive in circumstances that require more finesse.
Cheteshwar Pujara often served as Team India’s reliable Plan B when their backs were against the wall
“File:CHETESHWAR PUJARA (16007168057).jpg” by NAPARAZZI is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
‘Bazball’ has started to realise that this strategy is only as good as the graciousness and goodwill offered to them by the playing conditions and match situation. When the pitch is flat and true, and the opposition are playing catch up and reeling, ‘Bazball’ holds all the aces.
But when times get tough, and ball and bat are on an even keel, ‘Bazball’ has shown itself to not be the skeleton key they once thought would open all the doors for the England Men’s Test team.
And now, some of India’s most brazen and brash stroke makers have had their own rude awakening at the hands of the Black Caps.
This is just a stark reminder that Test cricket will get you the moment you think you have figured it out. And that is why this remains the best format of the game.
Perhaps the Black Caps’ winning strategy holds the key: clear role assignments which embrace the exuberance of youth, whilst also maintaining an equilibrium with the integration of calmer heads at the other end.
After all, Test cricket is the only format that still accommodates all player types. For India, there is room for a Yashasvi Jaiswal or Virender Sehwag as much as there is room for a Cheteshwar Pujara or Rahul Dravid.
Concluding remarks
2024 has been what Test cricket has desperately needed, filled with surprises and shake-ups from start to finish.
After a crushing series whitewash at home to the Black Caps and a steady decline in output from their batting superstars of the last decade, where does Team India go from here?
The aftermath of any series drubbing usually kickstarts a process of reflection and change.
The loss at the hands of the Black Caps has made a date at the 2023-2025 WTC final improbable, but not impossible. And with a 5-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series underway, Team India will be looking to make amends for themselves and their supporters.
With an ageing side now showing only flickers of the brilliance that once was, there is a very real possibility that the tour Down Under will be the swansong of the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravichandran Ashwin. For a cricketing nation that so deeply reveres its individuals, will the establishment and the fans be prepared to close this current chapter in Team India’s story in the hopes of a brighter tomorrow?
Once thing is for sure. This Indian side should not be written off in Australia. We all know that. Their rip-roaring start at Perth in the 1st Test has shown this, but over 5 matches, will the batters be able to sustain this level of performance without feeling jaded?
Every team has their time in the sun, and every team accumulates chinks in the armour as they go. The question will be whether the chinks in the armour that have accumulated over the last 5 years – both technically and psychologically – have left the current team too exposed to realistically give them a prolonged second wind?
In the meantime, the Black Caps have once again proven that the tag of ‘dark horse’ or ‘underdog’ may not be so appropriate as it once was. With a historic whitewash victory in India in the bag, and one eye currently on the 2023-2025 WTC final, will they be able to go all the way once again and become 2-time WTC winners?
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