Mumbai: India’s invincibility at home took a beating last year after they suffered clean sweeps against New Zealand (0-3) and South Africa (0-2). This has left India precariously placed on the World Test Championship table in their quest to make the final.
The next home Test in the current WTC cycle will be against Australia next year when the two giants collide in a five-Test series. Spin legend Harbhajan Singh has called for India to stop playing on square turners to give themselves a better chance of winning.
“I think we are losing matches because of the pitches, not because of skill. And to make the WTC final, the circle that we have made. To reach there, we need points. Because of this result-orientated outlook, we prepare pitches where our own batters don’t know how to play spin. We tried to dig a hole for others, but fell into it ourselves,” Harbhajan Singh said at a Legends club event in Mumbai. “If you prepare pitches that last 5 days, that’s where your better skill will prevail.”
There is a view that turning pitches help maximise home advantage and experts have spoken of an urgent need for Indian batters to improve their game against spin. Harbhajan concurred, but felt that would require Test players to play domestic cricket and an overhaul of domestic pitches that take plenty of turn.
As a quick fix, he advocated a switch to playing home Tests on pitches that deteriorate gradually rather than rapidly to favour spinners. “I am not ready to believe that Virat Kohli doesn’t know how to defend or Cheteshwar Pujara doesn’t know how to defend. The same Pujara went to Australia and scored hundreds,” he said. “Here, when Simon Harmer himself does not know which ball of his will turn, how will the batter know?”
South African off-spinner Harmer had picked up 17 wickets in two Tests where Indian batters were skittled out for low scores.