Was 2024 a satisfactory year for Indian men’s cricket? That’s a tough one to answer. After all, it was a year in which the team became T20I world champions after 17 years and also dominated the shortest format (24 wins in 26 games). But it was also a year of historic lows in both Test and ODI cricket. For the first time in 45 years, India couldn’t register a single win in ODI cricket in a calendar year, albeit they played only three ODIs (vs Sri Lanka and one match ended in a tie).
The memory that is the freshest in our minds is that of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which rounded off a rather disappointing year. Ironically, it had begun with a lot of promise with a historic win in Cape Town. India had to hand over the trophy to the Aussies for the first time in a decade. Overall, 2024 was a year that exposed some rather large chinks in India’s Test armour. India won only one of their last seven Tests last year. That is not a statistic any top team would like to claim. Losing a three-match Test series at home 0-3 for the first time was a real body blow. As former India captain Anjum Chopra told me during a chat recently, “This will be a bitter pill to swallow for the longest time because losing is one thing, but not being in the contest is another thing altogether.”
A Subpar Year
‘Not being in the contest’ is a great way of summarising Team India’s forgettable performances in both ODI and Test cricket in the year gone by. There were some highs, of course, such as the Test wins in Cape Town and Perth, Jasprit Bumrah’s heroics in Australia, his being crowned the most successful Indian Test bowler on Australian soil and finishing the year with the maximum number of wickets across all teams and formats. Likewise, Yashasvi Jaiswal finished as the second-highest Test run-getter in the world, and Rohit Sharma averaged over 52 in ODIs. Even so, the fact remains that 2024 was a subpar year for Indian ODI and Test cricket. So, what are the big lessons that the powers that be should learn in 2025?
The first ODI assignment of the year will be against England, at home. It’s a three-match series and will be the perfect platform, in many ways, to test new strategies and attack plans. One concern that’s common to both the ODI and Test arenas is the top-order batting form. If you ask experts about what’s the biggest kryptonite hurting Indian batters, the answer will be, their vulnerability against left-arm spin, in particular, and quality spin, overall. This is something that the coaching staff should be addressing on a war footing.
A Practice Issue?
In Sri Lanka last year, left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage ran through the Indian batting line-up like a hot knife through butter. Leggie Jeffrey Vandersay topped the wickets’ list and Kamindu Mendis tried to fox the Indian batters with his ambidextrous bowling skills (in a T20I). Team India hit a new low when they were bowled out for 138 in 26.1 overs in the third ODI, with the spinners taking nine of the 10 wickets. India’s problems with tackling spin are not a new headache, but the ODI series against the Lankans was a wake-up call. That turned into a blood-curdling scream when left-arm spinners Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner took 28 wickets between them to break the back of the famed Indian batting line-up, and that too on Indian pitches. Even part-timer Glenn Phillips took eight wickets. There was a time when a left-arm spinner troubling Indian batters was not a common occurrence. Yes, there was someone like Monty Panesar who troubled even the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag during England’s Test series win in India in 2012, but that was a one-off. Now, things have changed and the team finds itself in a tangle they are not able to resolve.
There is a view that since most batters these days play and practise more for T20 cricket, it has affected their ability to play spin. Batters go at the ball with harder hands, resulting in more edges. Also, with the DRS around, defending with pads is now a thing of the past. You now see Indian batters being foxed while attempting a defensive shot against a ball that is turning away. Sunil Gavaskar, arguably one of the most technically adept batters ever in world cricket, put the Indian batters’ struggles against spin down to “technical deficiencies”.
Look For A Lasting Fix
Many feel that India should stop producing pitches that are rank turners for home series. While that might be a stop-gap solution, it can’t be a long-term fix. Don’t the Aussies, Proteas and the English welcome visiting teams with spicy pitches, even though drop-in pitches have somewhat dulled the bite? The solution to this problem is right here, at home: domestic cricket. Why can’t our ‘star’ batters play Ranji Trophy cricket, especially when they are not in form? (For that to happen though, the selectors and team management also have to take tough calls) Why can’t an underperforming batter be dropped in the middle of a series? Or even after a disastrous one? Rohit Sharma was, after all, not part of the Sydney Test. We didn’t see the Aussies hesitate in dropping Mitchell Marsh—someone who won the Allan Border medal for being the best Aussie cricketer in 2023—for the last Test.
Many of India’s tracks where domestic cricket is played are spin havens and there are plenty of quality spinners in domestic teams. The best way for a batter to fix their technical issues is to actually play more cricket against opposition, something that will continually address their weaknesses, rather than face throw-downs or net bowlers for a few hours during team practice sessions. It’s high time our superstars realised that going back to domestic cricket is not a step back but a wise call to make. Will Gautam Gambhir and the BCCI crack the whip on this one?
Over-Dependent On Bumrah
In the bowling department, the biggest worry, especially in Test cricket, is the over-dependence on Bumrah. There’s no point being in denial about this one. Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation kind of talent. Sure, when he rocks the opposition single-handedly and swings the momentum towards his team, it’s fascinating. Over the years, we have come to expect nothing less from this magician. But surely he can’t be the only one winning matches for India. I also hope someone is tracking his workload very, very closely. Bumrah walking off the ground with an injury or niggle is not something any cricket fan would want to see again. Now there’s talk of him being made ODI vice-captain as well. The selectors need to keep looking for and giving chances to new fast-bowling talent, as they did with Harshit Rana in Australia.
Another aspect of India’s bowling problems, especially while playing in SENA countries, is playing another out-and-out specialist fast bowler—a proper wicket-taking option—in the first XI. This is possible only if the team is confident enough to drop a batter or all-rounder. Mohammed Shami hopefully will be fit soon and cleared to play international cricket. But for the long term, Rana, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna should be backed to the hilt, and new talent should be explored. This will also, in turn, reduce the burden on Bumrah.
The coach should have a clear vision of how he wants to tackle big-name batters and their own individual styles of play. Case in point: Rishabh Pant. Does Gambhir allow him to be who he is, regardless of how many times a completely out-of-textbook shot results in his dismissal? Or does he curb his natural instincts?
Some former players say that another thing that is doing no good is leaked information. The last thing Indian cricket needs right now is news of ‘a divided dressing room’ making headlines. There are problems, yes. There are egos, yes. But this is not the first time something like this has happened to a proud cricket team. These are professional athletes and they know exactly what needs to be done. It’s just a question of putting in the hard yards. How they do that and what the differences are shouldn’t be public. Please, stop the leaks.
(The author is a former sports editor and primetime sports news anchor. He is currently a columnist, features writer and stage actor)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
