India cricket team’s series loss to South Africa at home has surely done further damage to Gautam Gambhir’s reputation as head coach. The defeat marks the second time that the team has been whitewashed at home since he took over the reins of the team from Rahul Dravid in 2024. Gambhir’s list of accomplishments in Test cricket so far are as follows – 2-0 win against Bangladesh, 0-3 loss to New Zealand, 1-3 loss to Australia, 2-2 draw against England, 2-0 win against West Indies and now a 0-2 loss against South Africa.
Surely, Gambhir has committed tactical blunders which has put India’s chances of making it to the WTC 2025/27 final in jeopardy. But is he the sole reason behind India’s consistent failures? Perhaps not.
Failure of Indian batters to play spin
The series against South Africa has once again exposed the inability of the Indian batters to play spin, particularly at home. From the experienced KL Rahul to captain Rishabh Pant, every single batter struggled against the South African spinners. In fact, 25 out of 40 wickets that India lost in the two-match series were against spinners, with Simon Harmer alone picking up 17 wickets across the two games.
Time and again, experts and former cricketers have implored the Indian Test regulars to take part in domestic cricket consistently. This plea has been made in order to ensure that the batters are used to playing in the Indian conditions which are more spin-friendly in nature. But, hardly any Indian batter has taken part consistently in domestic games, and if they have done so, it has been for one or two odd games only.
| Batter | Runs |
| KL Rahul | 68 |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 83 |
| Sai Sudharsan | 29 |
| Rishabh Pant | 49 |
| Dhruv Jurel | 29 |
| Washington Sundar | 124 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 105 |
| Axar Patel | 42 |
| Nitish Kumar Reddy | 10 |
Following the 30-run loss in Kolkata, Gambhir admitted that the batters must improve their technique against spin. Yet, they seemed to have learnt no lesson as they met the same fate in Guwahati. With 10 months left until the next series, which will also take place in spin-friendly conditions in Sri Lanka, the Indian batters will have to race against time to improve their technique against spinners and to avoid embarrassment yet again. After all, the team faced the same fate against New Zealand last year and now have been handed a similar thrashing by the Proteas.
What about Indian spinners?
While the South African spinners, who had far less experience of playing in India, managed to take 25 wickets across 2 games, our Indian spinners simply failed to crack the code. In the 1st Test, India fielded four spinners – Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. While only three of them bowled in that game, they failed to extract turn from the surface at Eden Gardens while the SA spinners aced it. the trio managed to get just 10 wickets in that game.
In the 2nd Test, the Indian spinners managed to take a combined 11 wickets. Now the point is, if India want to play on rank-turners at home, then their spinners need to be acclimatized to such conditions. And this can only happen if they practice and play on such surfaces regularly. Once again, the answer to this issue lies in playing more domestic cricket.
But as many veterans have pointed out, such rank-turners are hardly rolled out in domestic games as well, which makes the problems for Indian spinners more complex. What is the solution then? Simple. Either set match simulations during practice in such a manner and on such surfaces where such kind of turn is expected. Else, don’t ask for such pitches at home and save the team from embarrassment.
Don’t forget Gambhir’s obsession
While the batters and the bowlers can be faulted for their technique, it is simply hard to ignore the head coach’s blunders. Gambhir’s obsession with all-rounders has caused more harm for India than good over the last few series. His intention to increase the team’s batting depth has affected the bowling severely and has caused imbalance to the side on majority of the occasions. Additionally, it has also impacted the performance of players, who are forced to focus on their batting more than bowling. And if this wasn’t enough, then comes the constant changing of positions and roles of the players which has left them confused as to what the team expects from them.
The all-rounder obsession needs to be replaced by fielding specialists in the playing XI, like how India used to do before. This has been pointed out by several former cricketers, including Venkatesh Prasad. The all-rounder obsession only brings instability to the side and this tactic has to change sooner than later in order for Indian Test cricket to move forward in the right direction.
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