IND vs.SA Test Series: Is Spinning Pitch or Poor Batting to Blame? Is Team India Losing More Wickets to Spin at Home? What Gautam Gambhir Said?
The Indian cricket team lost the Kolkata Test by 30 runs on Sunday. They needed to score 124 runs to win but only managed 93. With this loss, South Africa leads the two-match Test series 1-0.
This is the first time in 15 years that South Africa has beaten India in a Test match at home. It's also India's fourth loss at home in about a year. Spinners have played a big part in these defeats.
After the loss, some people blamed the difficult pitch, while others pointed to India's poor batting. The bigger question is whether Indian batsmen are struggling against spin bowlers.
Problem not with the pitch but the batting: Gambhir
Coach Gautam Gambhir said the problem was not the pitch but the batting. He said, "The pitch was fine for batting. Our batsmen need to improve their skills against spinners." In the Kolkata Test, 60% of the wickets lost by India were to spinners, with 12 out of 20 batsmen getting out to them.
60 out of 87 wickets lost were to spinners
Statistics from the past year show that Indian batsmen have been losing a lot of wickets to spinners. In six Test matches played in India last year, 60 out of 87 wickets lost were to spinners.
Many players in Test team play less red-ball domestic cricket
Gambhir also raised the question of why talented players like Sarfaraz Khan are not getting more chances. He pointed out that many players in the Test team play less red-ball domestic cricket, which affects their ability to handle spin. In the past, great players like Sachin Tendulkar played domestic cricket regularly.
Sarfaraz and Rajat Patidar had chances in the home series last year but were dropped after a couple of poor performances. Meanwhile, other players like Sai Sudarshan have continued to get support from the team management.