'Not by pace, swing or bounce, but...': Sanjay Manjrekar explains reason behind Indian batters' recent struggles in home Tests

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that there are two reasons behind the side suffering series whitewashes against both New Zealand and South Africa, with one of them being the inability of their batters to adapt to the spin conditions at home as they play a lot in other countries. He also feels that the Indian batters who rise through the ranks by performing well at the domestic circuit, aren't able to maintain that same form at the international stage.

Indian batters underperformed big time

The Indian batters gave an abysmal performance especially during the second Test against South Africa as the team posted scores of 201 and 140 in their first and second innings respectively. In comparison, the Proteas batters looked to be much more composed as they posted scores of 489 and 260/5 in their first and second innings respectively.

“There are two reasons India went down 0-3 to New Zealand and 0-2 to South Africa at home. And both teams beat India not by pace, swing or bounce but by spin. One is when an Indian batter scores heavily in domestic cricket and gets selected for India; he becomes like an NRI. In the sense that he hardly plays at home. There are more overseas cricket opportunities for Indian batters," Manjrekar said in a video on Instagram.

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With Shubman Gill absent for almost the entirety of the South Africa Test series due to a neck spasm that he sustained during the first game, onus was on experienced batters like KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant to perform. However, they failed to do so and got dismissed cheaply on both the occasions. India's performance with the ball was equally poor during the second Test as they just couldn't get wickets when it mattered.

India slip down to 5th

The two defeats against South Africa has seen India drop down to the fifth position on the World Test Championship (WTC) standings. They are currently behind the likes of Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan on the points table and if they do not improve their form in their next Test assignments, then it will become very hard for them to make it to the final that is set to take place in 2027.