Washington Sundar yet to mature as spinner, BCCI needs to change domestic pitches: Venkatapathy Raju

Venkatapathy Raju has critiqued the Indian spinners after South Africa whitewashed the home team. The former Indian spinner, who played 28 Test matches and took 93 wickets, boiled down Indian spinners’ struggles to a lack of experience and the influence of white-ball cricket.

Why Indian spinners struggled

Raju was critical of Washington Sundar and Axar Patel. Combined, the two finger spinners took 3 wickets in 3 innings. They offered control but couldn’t take wickets. The former left-arm spinner stated that neither Washi nor Axar bowls in domestic cricket, which means they don’t bowl long spells.

A spinner needs repetitions to master their art, something Washi and Axar haven’t done. Considering players have to switch formats on a month-to-month basis, it’s hard to get into the red-ball groove. That’s why both need more time to find their right line, length and speed.

“Patience is the most important virtue of a spinner. Unfortunately, it has been missing among our spinners, and that’s what I’ve been witnessing of late, especially on turning tracks, not on rank turners. I can see a couple of reasons. A) Our spinners don’t bowl enough in our conditions in domestic tournaments. B) The influence of white-ball habits. A spinner matures with not only age but also with the overs he sends down. When you bowl longer, you gain maturity and develop patience, which is absolutely necessary.

In India’s case, we are speaking not about spinners, but all-rounders like Washington Sundar and Axar Patel. They have been quite good and effective with the white ball. But when it comes to red-ball cricket, they hardly have the experience on such pitches on the domestic circuit. When you play on pitches that have a bit of help for spinners, you know exactly what is happening and what skill is required. Previously, we had pitches that were good for batting on the first couple of days, and it started to assist spinners from the third or fourth day. Those pitches were dry as well. So it helped you grow as a spinner. You would show patience, and towards the end, you went for the hunt,” Raju wrote in a column for the Indian Express.

BCCI need to change domestic pitches

Raju stated that Indian spinners didn’t vary their speeds in Kolkata or Guwahati enough. South African spinners clearly were better than India in this aspect and the results shows for it. He brought up the domestic point again. However, this time around, he stated that BCCI needs to make more turning tracks; otherwise, spin bowling and batting will suffer.

“In Kolkata and Guwahati, we played on contrasting pitches — one was black soil, and another was red. Depending on the soil, you need to make certain tweaks. For example, on red soil you should bowl a lot slower because it has to grip and turn. The trajectory has to keep changing. Length becomes crucial. It just can’t be bowling quick and bowling up. The speed has to be in the 70-80kph range. You will know this only if you play domestic cricket regularly because each pitch is different.

Here is where we should look at the pitches in the domestic circuit. We play on green tops or on paata tracks. It means you don’t get to face quality spinners even in the domestic circuit, and when you go to the Test level, there is a huge jump in terms of quality. When you play even on a slightly green top, the moment a spinner tosses the ball, batsmen will jump out and hit him out of the park,” he further wrote.