New Delhi, Nov 30: Do you recall how a quiet hush often falls over a stadium when a mighty team suddenly looks mortal? That is what Indian cricket has lived through over the past home season. South Africa arrived, unflustered by India’s fabled conditions, and left with a commanding 2–0 win. Before them, New Zealand had inflicted their own sting. And now, with a 5–2 win-loss record across their last three home series, India find themselves slipping from a seat they once occupied with effortless authority.
The next Test assignment—two matches in Sri Lanka—lies far away in August 2026. Between now and then stretches a long desert of white-ball cricket. Yet the silence between series might just be the time India need: time to take stock, time to rebuild, and time to fix what has begun to fray.
Below are guiding threads India must gather if they hope to regain their stronghold.
What Should India Prepare at Home?
Indian cricket has wrestled with a question for more than a decade: what is India’s ideal home pitch? Greenish true surfaces? Slow turners? Square turners that crumble on day one? The defeats in Kolkata and Guwahati exposed a harsh truth—no single surface guarantees immunity.
South Africa’s win was powered by extraordinary spells from Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer—visiting bowlers who delivered once-in-a-generation performances. Not many touring teams possess such resources. Most will still arrive with less potent attacks than India’s, provided India broaden the gap rather than shrink it.
Balanced surfaces—those that reward skill, not gimmickry—remain India’s best long-term ally. Flat but fair pitches force India to pick batters who can build robust hundreds against quality bowling. They demand spinners and quicks who must earn their wickets through craft, not through blind reliance on the surface.
For batters, especially, true pitches are a lifeline. How does one trust one’s technique if an average of 20 is considered par because the pitch is treacherous? And how fair is selection under such conditions? India will not want a revolving door of batters chosen purely on who survived the last minefield.
There will be days when a lost toss hurts, or when a visiting bowler conjures something magical. But that is cricket. Balanced pitches restore a degree of predictability and allow India to judge their players properly.
Redefining Allrounders: Pick Them for Skill, Not Convenience
India’s allrounder puzzle grows more tangled with each passing series
Axar Patel, on paper, seemed the perfect foil for right-hand-heavy South Africa in Kolkata: brisk, accurate, capable of shifting gears with the bat. Yet the reality was sobering. Corbin Bosch negotiated him comfortably, and Axar himself looked like a bowler playing his first red-ball match in years—which he effectively was.
The question becomes stark: if Axar is too indispensable in white-ball cricket to develop his red-ball chops, should he be in India’s Test plans at all?
Washington Sundar poses a different conundrum. He is prodigiously talented—capable of batting long hours, bowling tight spells, plugging gaps wherever they appear. But he, too, can sometimes resemble an offspinner who has taken fewer than 100 wickets in nearly 50 first-class games. Tidy, yes. Threatening, not always.
Maybe the answer lies in Kolkata’s template—pick Washington primarily as a batter who can send down useful overs, not as one of your frontline bowlers. This frees up a spot for a genuine wicket-taking option, especially on flatter tracks.
Nitish Kumar Reddy’s case is clearer. If the team isn’t using him with either discipline, should he not be honing his craft in domestic cricket instead of sitting quietly in a Test dressing room?
India’s selectors must resist the temptation to pick allrounders for convenience. The Test team needs cricketers who excel first at their primary skill.
The Search for Genuine Spinners Must Resume
Simon Harmer’s exhibition across the two Tests was a reminder of a bygone Indian strength: a lead spinner who could take wickets anywhere, anyhow. For years, R. Ashwin anchored India’s home dominance with his versatility—attacking stumps, using drift, exploiting dip, innovating endlessly.
In his final seasons, India’s overreliance on square turners may have blurred the distinction between him, Jadeja and the rest. Jadeja remains a world-class bowler across conditions. But Axar and Washington are not yet in that bracket.
A glance at India A selections offers little comfort—many of the chosen spinners double as allrounders, but few seem like pure, relentless red-ball operators.
If these are indeed the best available, India must trust them. But if not, this is the time to reassess priorities. (Agencies)
