Former Indian spinner Ashwin, meanwhile, claimed that hitters from earlier generations were more technically proficient than those from the present. In the opening game of the series against South Africa, India was, to put it mildly, terrible as they humiliatingly failed to chase down a target of 124. The ability of the present batters to play spin was criticised by former players, and with good reason.
The spinner noted that teams need to manage spin much better in order to win in subcontinental conditions. He also recalled a similar scenario from the previous year, in which Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel’s spin threat was a major factor in India’s 3-0 thumping at the hands of the visiting New Zealand team.
“I will venture to say that in a different game during a time when spin bowling was effectively countered.” I’ll use the names of Amol Muzumdar and Mithun Manhas, the president of the BCCI; I won’t use all of them, but I will use the name of the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, when he was at his best.
This game would have gone to four days if these players had faced spin on the same surface,” Ashwin stated in a video posted to his YouTube channel.
Only three or four guys have played good defence out of 16 batters. You must have a strong game against spin if you want to play on turning courses; if not, avoid playing on pitches like that, he continued.
Because they train a lot for situations like these, Ashwin pointed out that other teams are now more capable of handling spin than the hosts. The Chennai native went on to say that although India trains hard for pace when travelling abroad, Indian batters obviously don’t practise focussed spin for domestic conditions.
“We don’t practise it enough, but most Western teams are better than India now because they visit India and practise it a lot more. However, because we view that as a challenge, we are currently better fast bowlers in many other settings, but not in this one. That’s the distinction,” Ashwin stated.
India needs to win the second Test of the series, which is scheduled to begin on November 22 in Guwahati, in order to tie the series.
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