India needs to get a grip on handling the finger spinners

Even as India ended its T20 World Cup group stage with a 17-run win over the Netherlands here on Wednesday, there was an unease despite the defending champion’s unbeaten run.

The apprehension stemmed from the host’s poor handling of spin. While the left-arm spin of Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus (four for 20) kept the Indian batters on a leash in New Delhi, off-spinner Aryan Dutt accounted for Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan inside the PowerPlay in Ahmedabad.

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted that the team’s vulnerability to finger-spin is an area it needs to address.

“It is something we will have to focus on given the amount of finger-spin we will face in the next three games. It will be important to dominate that phase of the game,” he said.

Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Sikandar Raza, Akeal Hosein and Roston Chase are some of the finger-spinners India will be up against in the Super Eight.

India has lost 15 of its 31 wickets in this tournament to finger-spinners and has the second-lowest average (16.4) against them. Its run rate against finger-spin is 7.23, the lowest among the Test-playing nations in the competition.

Ten Doeschate feels that the Indian batters’ unfamiliarity with playing on surfaces that aid the spinners has accentuated the grim trend.

“The wickets we played bilateral series on, over the last 18 months, have been really good. As soon as you come to a surface that offers a bit of hold, it becomes a bit of a challenge,” said ten Doeschate. … the point is, we need to have plans when the wickets do hold, and when the boundaries are bigger”.