Anil Kumble, the legendary leg spinner and previous Head Coach of the Indian Cricket Team refuses to turn a blind eye to the glaring issue that has been caused by the batting displays of late and calls for an honest appraisal of the situation by the current unit, particularly taking into consideration the fact that there is no more space for complacency as the World Test Championship is peppered with its final dusts.
Kumble expressed his displeasure with the showing from the Indian batting line-up that could not chase down a mere 147 runs in a spin dominated surface in Mumbai, as the New Zealanders completed a clean sweep and a 3-0 series victory on Indian soil, the first of its kind since 1999/2000.
Only Rishabh Pant managed to register a respectable score, 64 runs, as the rest of the players failed miserably to present a pathetic batting effort at home once more. senior figures such as Rohit Sharma and also Virat Kohli have all been blamed for not scoring any runs with the bat when they were home and in friendly spinning conditions.
Kumble opined the crushing defeats that were witnessed during the New Zealand tour by the batters have happened on several occasions before, and a paradigm shift has yet to be realized. He offered that it is also about time the members of the team stood up and accepted that there were issues related to the bat.
“Over the last three Test matches, it is the same story. There is an agonizing familiarity when the spinners do come on with little between the performances across the games. There has been some improvement with a few of the batting order and some individuals, but as a team batting unit, they have still managed to suffer those collapses,” Kumble expressed via JioCinema and Sports18.
“The most worrying aspect is this happened too many times within one session. For this lineup to say, to stamp, ‘There’s nothing wrong’ – I think it is very wrong. The hardest part is admitting one has a problem. This Indian team has a point of view that they will sit and reflect on themselves and I am sure they will understand that there is a serious issue which needs to be resolved,” said the former all-rounder.
Consistent with prior analysis, Indian batters in general, and the middle order in particular, were found wanting against spin. The picturesque vistas of the Cradle of Humankind eclipsed by Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel’s debris in the course of the series in which the Indian batters hardly got going, which is quite ironic given India’s historical reputation as a gifted spin playing nation.