CHENNAI: Connect Roston Chase, Mitchell Santner, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mitchell Swepson and Ish Sodhi. They have all troubled Indian batters in T20I cricket in the recent past.
The hosts may have beaten West Indies 3-0 in the shortest format but their struggle against spin — a trend that’s become hard to ignore in recent times — refuses to abate.
Even as the pacers were despatched with minimal fuss, Chase routinely put the skids on the scoring. Against the West Indies bowling, including the off-spinner, India scored at a rate of 8.76 in the three games.
Against Chase alone, it dropped to 5.16 (it’s been an Achilles Heel in all three forms but that’s a different story).
This also presented itself at the World Cup when New Zealand and Pakistan found some joy. Mohammad Hafeez, Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan bowled eight overs for 44 while Santner and Sodhi gave away just 32 in eight overs.
Santner and Sodhi, the most impressive Kiwi bowlers in that five-match T20I series in 2020, showed that India aren’t all that good against spin.
In that infamous 2016 World T20 encounter in Nagpur, the duo, in the company of Nathan McCullum, wrecked the batting line-up, picking up 9/44 in 11 overs. While the surface exaggerated those figures, spinners are still finding joy when playing India.
From the beginning of 2019, Indian batters average 27 runs against spin as compared to 35.5 against pace. Their strike rates are also as stark.
For every 100 balls they face against spin, they score only 121.8 runs (against pace, that number is 145.2).
Extrapolating that over an entire match, they score 145 runs for every 120 balls faced (169 against pace). A few things to note before analysing why there’s a huge drop off.
The world over, batters are struggling against spin in the shortest format. The strike rate against spin is just 113 (125 against pace) while the economy is just 6.97 (7.87 against pace).
So, while one could argue that India are not good against spin, they are actually not as bad as the world average.
But a difference of 24 runs across 20 overs is one of the worst among all teams. Why? Sachin Tendulkar had a theory that he shared on his official Facebook account during the World Cup in UAE.
“I have noticed one thing,” he had said.
“leg-spinners who are mixing their deliveries, bowling googlies, top-spin, flipper and normal leg-spin have been successful in the recent past against India. I believe this is the area where we have to improve.”
Chase is predominantly an off-spinner but Tendulkar’s analysis was spot on.
In every T20I series since 2020, leggies have either bagged the most wickets or been the most economical or both. Swepson, Hasaranga and Adil Rashid are three examples.
In the T20I series in Australia, Swepson picked five wickets at 13.80 at an economy of just 6.9.
Keeping in mind a depleted team in Sri Lanka in July, Hasaranga scalped seven at 9.57 at an economy of 5.58. Even in the series against England (March) and New Zealand (November), the hosts had trouble hitting Rashid (7.78, four wickets) and Santner (6.58, four).
In the Sri Lanka series starting in Lucknow on Thursday, Hasaranga and, mystery spinner, Maheesh Theekshana, will look to keep the sequence going. As far as India are concerned, they will try to arrest it.