The Shubman Gill-led India missed a golden chance to clean sweep Sri Lanka in the two-match Test series recently after Sonal Dinusha kept the visitors at bay in the second Test in Colombo, batting for the entire fifth and final day. Of late, India has struggled to take 20 wickets in a Test, and these frailties have led to the side struggling in the longest format, with the side currently placed in the fifth spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings.
Legendary batter and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar recently identified the reason behind the team failing to take 20 wickets consistently, and it all goes back to how India’s domestic cricket is structured. The 1983 World Cup-winner cited the example of the recent Duleep Trophy, where Ishan Kishan’s East Zone took the title on the basis of a first innings lead.
Gavaskar said that it was sad to see the East Zone not going for an outright win and being content with taking the match after taking a first-innings lead. The contest between the East and South Zone saw the former batting for two days to post 708 runs on the board, with Ishan leading from the front and scoring 270.
The two captains, Ishan and Tilak Varma, shook hands after the East Zone declared their second innings on Day 5, and the play was called off even before the third session could get underway.
“The disappointing part was that East Zone did not go for an outright win and instead prolonged their second innings unnecessarily. That both skippers agreed to end the game earlier than scheduled also doesn’t sit well. If the game was to be stopped early, then why wasn’t it stopped at lunch time itself, when it was clear that in the two sessions remaining, South Zone was never going to chase down a score more than 650 runs,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
“This business of the first innings lead being enough, is one of the main reasons India struggle to take 20 wickets on good pitches. How does a team learn to take 20 wickets if they don’t bowl in two innings in a domestic game? India huffed and puffed on the last day of the second Test in Sri Lanka and couldn’t take the last four wickets for a victory,” he added.
The format of Ranji and Duleep
In recent years, the format of the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy has often been debated, and criticism has come towards teams for prioritising taking the game on the basis of a first innings lead and not doing enough to force a win. The format has often led teams to bat and post in excess of 700 runs to eliminate the other team’s chance of staging a comeback.
Gavaskar said that if the format remains, the Indian bowlers will continue to struggle for wickets on good pitches, as they will not have any practice doing so in the domestic circuit.
“Just like it takes time for a batter to learn how to go from 20 and 30 to a half-century and from 70 and 80 to a century, so also understanding how to get 10 wickets in the second innings takes time. There’s the question of stamina, of course, for after four days of tense cricket, not just the physical but the mental stress also can be too much,” wrote Gavaskar.
“And the one way to learn how to deal with that is at the first-class level. But, if a team that has taken a huge first innings lead is simply not interested in being on the field again, then how does one get the experience?” he added.
