Hoist by their own petard, Gautam Gambhir’s India must shun square turners at home to turn the corner

It’s official now – far from being invincible, India are actually vulnerable while playing at home. And much of it is of their own making.

It was unthinkable even 13 months ago that they would lose four of six matches in their own patch, to teams that arrived on these shores with tremendous apprehension, if not no little trepidation. Until October last year, New Zealand hadn’t won a Test on Indian soil for 24 years; they strutted off with a 3-0 sweep, making them the first side to win all matches in a series involving more than two Tests here.

Despite their status as the new World Test champions and despite their eight-wicket subjugation of Pakistan in Rawalpindi three weeks back, Temba Bavuma’s South Africa anticipated the sternest examination in a land where a Test victory had been elusive since February 2010. They were prepared for an ordeal by fire, quietly confident of their skills and resolve but expecting the sternest examination of character. After all, never mind the setback against New Zealand, this was India. In India.

At one point, India in India was a fearsome prospect that conquered most teams in the mind even before they left their land. Unbeaten in a series at home since December 2012, they were intimidatingly impressive, never mind who was at the helm and which players constituted the XI. They played the turning ball with ridiculous ease, their own extraordinary spinners cut all comers down to size, they caught everything and seldom missed a trick.

Then, when slight technical issues against spin surfaced, they went the prudent way, backing the skills of their bowling group to do the job on true tracks where batting wasn’t fraught with danger and hesitancy. That worked wonders, especially against England in 2016 and again early last year.

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Are India sabotaging Bumrah and Siraj with their pitch calls?

For some reason, India have chosen to break from that trend and invest in the spin basket, much to their own detriment – as recent history will testify. Despite possessing the best fast bowler in the world (Jasprit Bumrah) and a pace partner at the peak of his prowess (Mohammed Siraj), they are intent on negating that duo with their insistence on the kind of surfaces like the one that greeted them at Eden Gardens. Head coach Gautam Gambhir admitted this was ‘exactly the kind of wicket we had asked for’. What’s it they say about being careful what you wish for?

Siraj took seven wickets in Ahmedabad in the first of two Tests against West Indies last month and ten wickets in all in a series that netted Bumrah seven scalps. Siraj also snared two wickets on the first morning in Kolkata, yet in the second innings, the Hyderabadi wasn’t brought on to bowl till the 52nd over. Really?

Why would you voluntarily neutralise Bumrah and Siraj? Why would you take one crucial and delivering dimension of your bowling attack out of the equation? Why would you bank so much on spin, especially when you aren’t unaware that your young batters haven’t showcased the skills or the temperament to grind it out when the ball has spun like a top or bounced differently from the same spot? Why, Gautam, why?

Why would you ask for a surface where the turn is prodigious and the bounce so inconsistent that your batters, skilled as they are, are crease-tied, afraid to trust their defence and seemingly detached from the art of rotating strike? Why wouldn’t you give them the pleasure of batting on good strips (a gift bestowed on them by England in the summer) and stacking up sizeable totals that will allow the versatile, highly proficient and multi-pronged bowling unit to get down to work? Why would you embark on a trail of self-destruction and then rue opportunities lost? Why would you throw away home advantage?

For, and let’s no longer shy away from this, there is no home advantage in playing on turners anymore. India’s batters, experienced and seasoned like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, and fledgling such as the out-of-favour Sarfaraz Khan, have found above-average but hardly world-beating tweakers from overseas – Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer – impossible to tackle with authority when they have extracted purchase. The myth that Indians are still the best players of spin now comprehensively exploded, it’s time to embrace a reality check and return to ‘proper’ pitches that will encourage/test all aspects of the game and yet allow the more skilled side to prevail nine times out of ten.

India are doing themselves no favours by letting the opposition get a look-in, their so-called quest for World Test Championship points repeatedly falling flat on its face.

Sunday’s 30-run defeat was India’s nine in 18 Tests (seven wins) in the Gambhir era. ‘Young players’ is beginning to sound like a messy tape running on loop. The way forward is obvious and inviting – shun the turners, trust your skills to carry the day on more predictable decks. And don’t shortchange your batters. Any takers?

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