Reasons why India batters find themselves vulnerable against spin in the current era

Top reasons why Team India’s batters struggle against spin today — from poor footwork to limited domestic experience on turning tracks.

Team India batters, who are known to be good players of spin, are being beaten in their own game and that too in familiar home conditions. The Eden Gardens Test showed India batters’ vulnerability against spin after Simon Harmer bagged eight wickets in the match to win the Test for his team by 30 runs. A year ago, the likes of Mitchell Santer and Ajaz Patel of New Zealand had spun a web against a famed India batting line-up, comprising Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who are now retired, to whitewash India 3-0 at home.

India drop their invincibility
It’s rather shocking for a team, who were once invincible at home, to lose four home Tests in the last six games. The losses are difficult to digest, considering India’s dominance against all opposition at home before the 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand. From February 2017 to September 2024, India had a win-loss record of 25-4 at home in Tests. But since October 2024, India have a win-loss record of 2-4 at home. The two wins came against low-ranked team West Indies, who also gave India a fight in the second Test, stretching the match till the fifth day.

So, why are India batters so vulnerable against quality spin at home that they have lost their home dominance?

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It’s no surprise that India batters’ grip over spin has loosened over the past year since the New Zealand series whitewash. Here’s how India batters, from No 1 to No 6, have fared against opposition spin attack at home since October 2024 till now, compared to a year ago period.

India batters’ average against spinners at home slipped to 34.45 since October 1, 2024 till date, compared to 45.71 in the  year ago period. The strike rate too slipped to 63.27 from 66.75.

However, the decline has not been sudden. It has been gradual and got amplified only after India’s 0-3 series whitewash against New Zealand. A comparison of India’s batters against spinners at home in Tests over a five-year period show a drop of batting average to almost half.

The stats above show India batters’ average against opposition spinners at home Tests had dropped to 36.32 for the time period of November 2020 to November 2025 compared to 63.21 for the time period of November 2015 to November 2020.

So, what could be the possible causes of India’s decline against opposition spinners in home Tests?

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Technical errors
The success of T20 cricket, and the aggressive approach adopted in ODIs to score quick and make the format exciting have led batters to play across the line regularly to score at a fast pace. This has brought technical errors in their batting to combat quality spin on turning tracks. The art of playing with soft hands, playing decisively on the front and back foot to counter the spin threat, and using the footwork to negate the spin have been on the wane. Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan said, “Skills to play spin on turning tracks around the world have definitely gone down, but this kind of batting from India shows how much our own ability has dropped too. Soft hands, wrist work, all of it has declined drastically.”

Hence, India batters who have little turnaround to switch from T20s, ODIs to Tests struggled to negate quality spin attack in their familiar home conditions.

Lack of practice to play spinners at home
India’s captain Shubman Gill, who was supposed to hold the batting order in this South Africa series, got injured after playing just three deliveries in the Eden Gardens Test. Gill, in fact, was rushed from one format to another, and an injury was around the corner. A week ago, he was in Australia playing a five-match T20I series.

Gone are the days when both teams, especially the first-choice players, played a practice game or two before taking on each other in the upcoming Test series. This lack of practice on home pitches has made India batters vulnerable against quality spin attack from the opposition. Hence, Ajaz, Santner and now Harmer made life tough for India batters in home Tests in the last one year.

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DRS to the rescue of spinners
Decision Review System (DRS) was enforced to reduce human errors from umpiring. However, what it has also done is that it has helped spinners gain more LBW decisions in their favour thanks to the technology. A Cricinfo report showed spinners accounted for 21 per cent of LBW decisions from 2008 to 2020 compared to 17 pc  in the decade before DRS. It means that batters who used pad as a second line of defence during pre DRS era are more vulnerable as LBW victims in the DRS era. This is because technology shows the ball hitting the stumps when rapped on pads and turning not out LBW decisions into dismissals. Hence, batters are more susceptible to losing wickets against spinners via LBW thanks to the DRS.

The way forward for India batters
It cannot be denied that India batters have struggled to play spin against quality opposition at home. They need to get back to the basics of playing this form of bowling efficiently in home conditions, sort out their technical flaws that have crept into their game, and play the spinners with more patience to build an innings or a stand rather than looking to hit out of trouble against them.

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