Gautam Gambhir was, as ever, his fiery self. The India head coach gave a short speech in Colombo as the squad began preparing for a two-Test series against Sri Lanka, and the Times of India notes that the mood around it was edgy.
The numbers over the last decade say India should win. The Times of India says the unease comes from something else: a steep drop in India’s results on spin-friendly pitches. The squad has brought a crop of spinners as net bowlers, which suggests the management expects turning conditions in both Tests. The series is a step toward next year’s World Test Championship final, and the paper calls it a “banana peel series” on which India could trip.
A habit lost
It is a strange place to be. India’s Test cricket once fed on spin, and its batting against the turning ball served as a tutorial for everyone else. For more than half a decade, though, the batting has crumbled against testing spin at home and abroad. The raging turners cost Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane their careers before they caught up with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. And the spinners themselves have been out-bowled in India’s home defeats.
The heavy losses at home to New Zealand and South Africa under Gambhir are why this series carries more interest than the Sri Lanka tours of the past decade, when India dominated.
The baton
Former India left-arm spinner Murali Kartik thinks the tour will show whether the spin baton has really passed. “Everyone expected that the baton would pass smoothly once Ashwin left. It hasn’t quite happened yet,” he told the paper. Jadeja, he said, is at the fag end of his career.
That puts Kuldeep Yadav and Manav Suthar in the spotlight. Kartik wants Kuldeep fresh, because so much of his bowling depends on his action. He called Suthar “like a breath of fresh air” and noted he looked good against Afghanistan alongside Kuldeep and Washington Sundar.
Kartik’s warning is about restraint. Mitch Santner and Simon Harmer did well in India, he said, because they bowled at the right pace and never left their lengths. Indian spinners could not do the same in those two home series. Suthar must also keep calm and control the Kookaburra ball, which he recently used in Sri Lanka for India A. Kuldeep, who management has not trusted much with the bat, must find a balance between batting and bowling, though Kartik calls him a capable Test batter.
The paper’s verdict is blunt: a slip-up here and Indian cricket will need a lot of work to get back on its feet.
