Winning ploy takes sheen off batting

INDORE: The decision of the Indian cricket board and the team management to extract home advantage in Tests has paid dividends in the past year. It began when MS

INDORE: The decision of the Indian cricket board and the team management to extract home advantage in Tests has paid dividends in the past year. It began when MS Dhoni was captain and has continued under Virat Kohli.

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In the two home series Kohli has been in charge, spin-friendly conditions have worked wonders for India. Against New Zealand, this ploy proved crucial as spinners ran riot in Kanpur. In Kolkata, the wicket not only helped spinners, it was two-paced and had unpredictable bounce.

Under Kohli, the trend began in 2015 when South Africa visited. The pitch tactics faced flak following lopsided games on rank turners. While the results have been favourable for India, what has been missing are runs from either side.

In these two series, no team has posted a total of 400 or more. In fact, when South Africa came calling, neither team scored 350.

In that series, only one batsman, Ajinkya Rahane, breached the three-figure mark with centuries in either innings of the Delhi Test. On Saturday, Kohli scored the first century of this series.

It was a fighting knock in the face of adversity. The wicket wasn’t exactly unplayable, but offered the bowlers enough help to keep the batsmen on tenterhooks.

Kohli was joined by Ajinkya Rahane and the two grinded out a partnership after the top-order fell. The batsmen were never in command until the final hour of the day. The average run-rate was well under three.

It’s a trend now when India hosts Tests, forcing what once was a bastion for batsmen into an obstacle course that requires great powers of concentration and ability to finish.

It isn’t a surprise that the only two batsmen to peak on these surfaces have also been India’s two most successful batsmen in the past year.

By contrast, on India’s tour of the West Indies, the only Test series Indies played in between, saw six batsmen score tons, five of them Indians.

A wicket in India would ideally help pacers in the first two sessions of Day 1, later help the batsmen for two-and-a-half days before breaking to help spin.

Nowadays, the top soil is left loose, usually resulting in sharp turn from the start.

Before Saturday, Kohli too had been off-colour at home. In the three innings he had played in the series, his best was 45. Even against South Africa, he had scored just one 50-plus score in four matches.

Saturday’s century was Kohli’s first at home after 17 innings, a telling statistic on the home Test conditions. While shifting focus from individual milestones to team results is the right way forward, a lack of runs does devalues Test cricket as a spectacle.