Anatomy of India's downward spiral in Test cricket

Let us go back around four decades when many of the Gen X were beginning to witness their youth correspond to Indian cricket team's growing strength at home in Test matches.

Post the 1986-87 series loss to Pakistan, which culminated in a demoralising loss on a snake-pit at Bangalore, India’s increasing financial strength went hand in hand with their stature in Test cricket at home.

Teams were willingly beginning to tour India post the success of the 1987 Reliance World Cup as money was beginning to flow. India were beginning to throw in surfaces that would help their quality spin bowlers on Days 4 and 5 and there lay India’s success mantra. Using the home conditions.

Since that loss in 1987, India had mostly won series till the turn of the 21st century with the exception being Pakistan’s three-Test trip, two of which belonged to the bilateral series and one to the Asian Test Championship.

Pakistan won two of those three Tests.

But besides that and a couple of drawn series against West Indies and a drawn series against Sri Lanka, India’s home record was blemishless.

Since 2000 and till 2012-13, India went on to lose but only a rare few series – 2-0 to South Africa in 2000, 2-1 to Australia in 2004-05, 2-1 to England in 2012-13 before entering a decade of supreme dominance where even drawing a series against India was impossible.

Post that 2012-13 series loss, India won 18 home series on the trot. No one could even draw a series. This run was helped also by two great spinners in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja playing often on pitches that supported spin from the first ball of the match.

The visiting teams did not have spinners who could perform here as well as Ashwin and Jadeja along with others did, nor did they have batsmen who could play the Indian spinners.

But in 2024, New Zealand turned the tables on India. They came well prepared for any eventuality. They had good seamers who could use the green top like they did in the first Test in Bangalore and then they also had a spin attack led by Mitchell Santner. New Zealand defeated India 3-0 for what was a first humiliation of its kind for the Indians at home. They had never been whitewashed in a series of three or more Tests at home before this one.

A disconcerting point of that series was the batting order set by coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Rohit Sharma’s. There was no fixed order through the three Tests. Sarfaraz Khan who made 150 in the second innings of the first Test batted in different slots in the remaining two Tests.

Despite being a specialist batsman, he batted even below Washington Sundar once. At another time, Mohammed Siraj was sent in as a nightwatchman when Sundar could have been an appropriate choice.

Those two decisions gave away team management’s thinking about entrusting Sundar with batting responsibilities. He who was picked in the squad as a spin bowling all-rounder and who would go on to become the team’s lead off-spinner in a year’s time was also being taken in as a serious batsman. A year later, against South Africa in Kolkata, he was walking in at No. 3.

Gambhir & Co’s inability to draft specialists or perhaps distrust them has resulted in a situation where India did not have a regular No. 3 and No. 4, the latter especially after injury to Shubman Gill.

India’s performance in England was impressive and a big reason for that was Gill’s performance at No. 4. He scored over 700 runs. Even the No. 3 batsmen used – Karun Nair or Sai Sudharsan -- had some innings of note to show.

But post that India decided to drop Nair, and even ignored Sudharsan. Sundar went in at No. 3. Nair was not even given an opportunity to play at home. It was a decision that seemingly was taken in reaction to Nair’s criticism on social media.

In the final Test, with Gill unavailable, India brought back Sudharsan. But they pushed Dhruv Jurel to No. 4. Jurel is a good wicketkeeper-batsman but to ask him to do batsman’s duties is too much. Jurel did well in the home series against England in early 2024 but one needs to remember that England did not have good spinners. In fact, their bowling attack was far inferior to that put out by South Africa and New Zealand.

The team management, which now comprises Head Coach Gautam Gambhir, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, bowling coach Morne Morkel and skipper Rishabh Pant – went in with three all-rounders – two spin-bowling ones in Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja and one pace-bowling one in Nitish Kumar Reddy.

None of them are expert at one facet and it showed as India capitulated.

While all the heat is on Gautam Gambhir as he faces criticism, questions should be asked of Kotak and Morkel. What sort of batting and bowling line-ups are the two fielding?

We have reached a stage where that Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri tactic of tossing spin-friendly tracks on opposition won’t always guarantee result. For teams like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are now aware of the challenges and have the wherewithal to counter it. They can play on any surface. Even England, if they had been a bit more sensible, they could have surprised India in early 2024.

While the immediate focus will be on the T20 World Cup to be played at home early next year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should do well to keep an eye on the 2027 five-Test series at home against Australia. That series could well decide India’s chances in the 2027 World Test Championship final.  

Tags : Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Indian cricket team, South Africa