Virender Sehwag, one the best spin bashers on his time, has said that there are several reasons why Indian batting right now struggles against quality spin. His words come after Indian batters struggled against Sri Lanka recently.
India lost the ODI series 2-0 in Sri Lanka, for the first time since 1997. And one of the glaring issues was the Men in Blue batters struggling against Sri Lankan spinners.
This was the first assignment for new India head coach Gautam Gambhir and while India won the T20Is 3-0, Sri Lanka bettered India in ODIs.
The ODI series setback highlighted one of India’s long-standing issues: the hitters’ weakness against quality spin. In the three one-day internationals, India lost 27 of their 30 wickets to spinners, with Jeffrey Vandersay’s 6/33 damaging the Men in Blue in the second game and Dunith Wellalage’s five-wicket haul being the highlight in the decider.
Wellalage had also troubled the same team a year ago at the Asia Cup 2023 in Colombo but India somehow managed to crawl to victory.
Virender Sehwag says T20 cricket limiting skills of spinners; senior batters not playing enough domestic cricket
Virender Sehwag, noted for his ability to dominate spin bowlers, expressed his thoughts on India’s recent troubles with spin. Sehwag claimed that the team is missing quality spinners. He stated that Indian players play less domestic cricket, which allows them to improve their talents.
“One reason for this is that the more white ball cricket there is, the less spinners will come, because in T20 cricket you bowl 24 balls and do not flight them, so you do not develop the skill to get the batsman out. I think that could be one reason. Indian players also play less domestic cricket. In domestic cricket you get to play more spin than in international cricket. So that can also be a reason. I think there are no quality spinners in India right now whom I see who can fly well and take wickets,” Virender Sehwag told Amar Ujala.
Virender Sehwag stated that the previous generation of Indian cricketers, including himself, excelled at controlling spin bowling. Sehwag recalled how they used to play domestic cricket against spin bowlers.
“In our time, Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, Laxman, Yuvraj, all of us used to play domestic cricket too, whether it was ODI or four-day cricket, we used to play a lot of domestic cricket. We used to play a lot of spinners in those matches, but in today’s busy schedule, players are getting less time. There are different leagues, due to which the skill of playing spin is not being developed by the players,” he added.
Perhaps because of this obvious truth, the BCCI decided a few months ago to make it necessary for Indian cricketers to play in domestic cricket.
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