VISAKHAPATNAM: When Rohit Sharma handed the team sheet over to Ben Stokes at the toss before the first Test, it marked a couple of firsts. Yashasvi Jaiswal's first Test at home. At one drop, it was Shubman Gill; in that position for the first time out of design in India. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, two of the better players of spin in this line-up, came at Nos. 4 and 5; another first in that order.
In isolation, these are not surprises. If Virat Kohli was in the squad, he would have walked into bat at No. 4, with one of Shreyas or Gill carrying the drinks. But zoom out the lens a bit. It is clear that the squad is in the middle of a slow but painful transition.
While Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane continue to make their presence felt by being absent, the management have moved on from them. The problem when going through a transition is that players take time to adapt and grow. That's even before you consider the challenging pitches they have played at home. It will take time. But how much rope is too much?
Coach Rahul Dravid had sung from the same hymn sheet before the Test. "Sometimes you forget that it takes people a little bit of time," he had said. "Some guys have success instantly. Actually, he's one of those guys. He's done really well in some of his early tours, especially in Australia. To be fair to him and a lot of the young guys coming through, a lot of them have played on really challenging wickets, whether in India or overseas...
"But he's doing all the right things. He's working really hard, he's putting in the time, putting in the effort. His last season, he got a couple of nice hundreds for us, one in Bangladesh, one in Ahmedabad. So, I think he's on the right track. Just hoping that over the course of this five-match series, he has some big performances."
On his day, Gill looks like a million bucks. The noise the ball makes when it comes of his bat is so good it deserves to go to the Oscars for best original sound. But, since that Australia series, the prince has lost his mojo. Since his 100 at Ahmedabad last March, his run reads: "13, 18, 6, 10, 29*, 2, 26, 36, 10, 23, 0."
Across his last five innings, he has made 95 for an average of 19. In that 95, though, he has 15 boundaries. There in explains the Gill dichotomy in Tests. Some of India's best Test players of the 21st century had multiple release shots, including maneuvering the field with ones and twos. That's why both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are two of the best in this team even after the pitches have become challenging (refer table).
"When you bat at No. 3," Anil Kumble had told the host broadcaster during the first Test, "especially in India, because you have that talent, you certainly need to work hard on your game. He needs to come up with his own plan to tackle spin, because he has hard hands."
Take his dismissals to spin in India. Ajaz Patel had him caught at slip, while Rachin Ravindra saw him give a catch to short cover (both in 2021). Matt Kuhnemann had him snicking to first slip while Nathan Lyon had him bowled after he came down only to miss the line (2023). Those hard hands put paid to him in the second innings at Hyderabad last week. In the first, an uppish drive was pocketed by mid-wicket... it's a pattern that's kept happening early on in his innings. It's a far cry from Shubman, the white-ball cricketer who has broken records in 2023. In Tests, he has strangely resembled a broken record.
Dravid was sympathetic. "We have been playing on pretty challenging wickets over the last few years. "It’s been a bit of a challenge for some of our young batters to adapt. They’ve got the skill and the ability. They’ve come here by scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket. They are being picked on merit and not out of nowhere. Sometimes, it does take time for people to adjust." It was contrasting to watch Rahul and Gill during their small stand in the first innings. While the No. 4 had multiple shots, Gill was seemingly tentative.
But there is value in persisting with Gill. Especially after taking the decision to give what he wants — the No. 3 slot — there is no point in taking it away so soon. That would just be muddled thinking.
Shreyas is a more recent member of India's Test squad. Having played his first match in 2021, he has almost become an established member of the side. It's fairly obvious what he brings to the table. The ability to take-on spin and score quickly (this is important because natural stroke-makers have become key in the WTC era as pitches have become result-oriented). He has come at 5 or 6 the majority of times so spin vs him has been a direct confrontation. Off late, he isn't enjoying it.
Since winning India the Test at Mirpur in late 2022, his returns reads: "4, 12, 0, 26, 31, 6, 0, 4*, 35, 13." Even excluding the scores in South Africa, it's not good for somebody whose role in this team is to transfer pressure back on the opposition. In the absence of Rishabh Pant, India needed Shreyas to almost reprise the role the wicket-keeper was doing in these conditions. The Mumbaikar is still getting up to speed.
The other intangible that has been doing the rounds is that the modern Indian batter isn't all that against spin. While correlation doesn't imply causation, there was a stat doing the rounds around the time India were getting bowled out by Tom Hartley in the second innings. In the six Tests India have lost at home since 2011, the average turn has been greater than in the 41 Tests they have won. There's two ways to look at this. The bigger average turn has brought the visiting spinners into equation or modern Indian batters are as bad at playing spin as the batters coming to these shores. And in a straight shoot-out, the hosts have tended to lose.
With pitches in this series expected to be slow turners, it's the ideal opportunity for the likes of Jaiswal, Shreyas and Gill — the short-term future of Indian red-ball batting for India in India — to go past the teething issues and establish themselves. If they don't, there is every chance that England walk away as winners of the series.