India captain KL Rahul shared his views on the batters' recent struggles against spin on home soil. This comes after the South Africa spin duo of Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj totally dominated over the Indian batters in the recently-concluded Test series. While Maharaj finished the assignment with six scalps, Simon Harmer was adjudged as the Player of the Series for racking up a highly-impressive 17 wickets.
Rahul's verdict on Indian batters' struggles
Rahul remarked that the players are trying their best to improve their performance against spin, but if they do not improve in the coming assignments, then they may have to take advice from former Indian cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, who used to play spin better.
“I can’t give a definitive answer. Yes, we have not been able to play spin that well for a series or two. We know it, we acknowledge it. It’s part of a batter’s job to recognise when we are not playing spin properly. You spoke about Gavaskar sir speaking on the issue — we can talk to him and understand what we need to do better against spin. We are already trying to find ways to improve. I don’t think it will happen overnight,” Rahul said in the pre-match press-conference.
“I don’t have the answer as to why Indian batters played spin better in the past than they do now. There might be several reasons for that. But we can certainly look at how to improve against spin. Individually, we need to find ways to play it better," he added.
Indian batters hope to improve in SA ODI series
The Indian batters will be hoping to put their struggles against spin to rest in the upcoming ODI series against South Africa that will commence from November 30. The batting order has been significantly strengthened by the inclusion of stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and the team will be looking to dominate in the department. The first match of the series will take place at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi.
India's squad for ODI series against South Africa: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.
South Africa's squad for India ODIs: Temba Bavuma (C), Ottneil Baartman, Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Rubin Hermann, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Ryan Rickelton, Prenelan Subrayen.