Often Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have sufficed—between them, they have snaffled a combined 484 wickets at 21.16 at home. But as though they are not enough, India would likely sharpen their spin cutting-edge with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. Three days before the first Test between India and Australia in Nagpur, the pitch for the game was dressed in green, splashed with odd brown wrinkles towards the centre. But the grass could be shaved off in the coming days, as India, it is learned, would dish out turners for the four-Test series and could potentially pack their playing eleven with four spinners to torment Australia’s batsmen.
A high-profile series at stake, the most intense rivalry in Test this century, and a spot in the World Test Championship final on the line, for which India ought to win at least three matches in this series, they have resorted to their well-worn ally, the turners. “We want to maximise our advantage and prepare turners. Spinners are our biggest strength and we should give them the best conditions to bowl and get wickets,” says a source in the team.
It has been the theme in the last few years, starting with South Africa’s tour to India in 2015 to the most recent one against Sri Lanka—unfold spinning tracks and skittle out the opponents. Remarkably, India have lost just two games in this eight-year span and won as many as 27 of the 34 games, without losing a series.
Preps in full swing 👌 👌 #TeamIndia hit the ground running for the #INDvAUS Test series opener in Nagpur 👍 👍 pic.twitter.com/LwJUGZ5hPp
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 5, 2023
Often Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have sufficed—between them, they have snaffled a combined 484 wickets at 21.16 at home. But as though they are not enough, India would likely sharpen their spin cutting-edge with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. Australia would remember Yadav with a fright, as the left-arm wrist spinner had confounded them with his variations in Dharamshala in the series-decider in the 2017 series.
Patel, filling in for Jadeja whenever he was injured, has made himself undroppable, nabbing 47 wickets at an unearthly average of 14.29 in eight games. “Of course, the team will make the final call on the eleven on the eve of the match, or in the morning after having final look at the wicket, but four spinners are certainly in our plans, as we have four quality spinners in the team,” the source explained.
No one in the team management has openly spoken about instructing home associations or curators for spinning surfaces, but India’s pre-series camp as well as during the practice session at the Jamtha Stadium, Nagpur, threw ample signs of what is in store.
As many as 10 spinners were summoned to the camp as well in the nets, relentlessly bowling at the batsmen. Though pacers Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami—only one could likely feature should India pack four spinners—did bowl under the scorching forenoon sun, neither got an extended spell. At one point during the nets, Rohit Sharma, begged the batting coach to let him face a spinner, after continuously facing Siraj.
There were tell-tale signs that they were preparing and rehearsing to neutralise a wickedly turning track and the threat Australia’s spinners could pose. The battle-hardened Nathan Lyon apart, there are a bunch of callow spinners with a collective experience of nine Tests. On a turner, even obscure spinners could wreak havoc, especially as India’s current crop of batsmen have struggled to blossom on spinner-friendly surfaces.
So almost all of them were rigorously practising against spinners, unfurling sweeps and even the reverse sweep. Even Virat Kohli and Sharma, who seldom resort to reverse strokes, repeatedly attempted the shots. Sharma employed the slog-sweep, another potent weapon to counter spin, on several occasions.
And the practice continues….#INDvAUS https://t.co/qwRUSxcLBY pic.twitter.com/5mECrOjWiG
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 3, 2023
Kohli would instruct the bowlers to bowl short-of-length, and he would look to cut them on the back-foot. He would also shimmy down the track, meet the ball on the full and power them down the ground. The proficiency to sweep spinners brightens the prospect of Suryakumar Yadav’s Test debut.
The fielding drills too telegraphed the probable nature of the surface. For close to one hour, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara practised slip-catching to spinners alone, lunging sideways to pouch flying edges from the bat and bending low to pocket low catches. The close-in fielders too, spent hours polishing their reflexes. Batting coach Vikram Rathour would make spinners pound the rough and intentionally edge the ball to wicket-keeper KS Bharat, so that he gets a hang of the strips he could encounter in the series.
Their rivals Australia, who arrived in the city in the evening, too know the spin examination that awaits them and had trained accordingly, from preparing a scuffed-up track in North Sydney Oval before they boarded the flight to Bangalore and refusing the tour game so that they get time to bat on the wickets they want and not what they are provided, to roping in a raft of local spinners including a Ravi Ashwin impersonator to bowl at the nets.
Once they hit the nets, they would notice the dryness of the surfaces here and the copious amount of dust that explodes off the surfaces. If they bother digging up numbers, they would learn that India have won five of the six games here, three by an innings margin and only twice has the venue seen the fifth day. So the grass that might greet them would all be a facade before the odd brown wrinkles would spread and shade out the shades of green.
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