‘We can speak to someone like Gavaskar sir’: KL Rahul concedes India still searching for answers against spin

India players can take advice from Sunil Gavaskar believes KL Rahul. (Photo: AFP)

When South Africa and New Zealand visited the subcontinent in back-to-back years and breached India's stronghold, the invincibility of the once-dominant and nearly unbeatable Indian squad at home was shattered. The fact that Gautam Gambhir's squad has lost five of their last five Test matches due to these two factors indicates that they have a number of problems, which are difficult to solve. However, the flaws that have emerged against spin bowling will undoubtedly be the beginning point.

It's a challenging question, and KL Rahul, the stand-in ODI skipper, didn't have many answers during his press conference when asked why India has experienced this kind of decline. He was content to acknowledge, though, that the Indian squad may benefit from the assistance of earlier generations who were well-known for their ability to play against spin.

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“I can’t give a definitive answer,” Rahul said regarding India’s spin woes. “All I can say is we have obviously not have been able to play spin bowling well for 2-3 series, and that is something we recognise as batters.”

Rahul then mentioned Sunil Gavaskar, who became one of the greatest batters of all time thanks to a spectacular technique against the turning ball, as one of the legends in the Indian media circuit that the squad might be able to approach for suggestions.

“We can speak to someone like Gavaskar sir and learn from him, and we’re already trying to find ways how we can play better against spin. That won’t happen overnight, and I don’t know the answer for why we were able to play earlier but not now, there are a lot of reasons for this. But we will just work on how individually we can get better,” said Rahul.

With 17 wickets in two games and winning player of the series, Proteas spinner Simon Harmer was the player India struggled against in the Test series against South Africa. However, he now joins the ranks of players like Mitchell Santner who have outwitted India in India and players like Ajaz Patel and Todd Murphy who have had amazing wicket-taking performances on the subcontinent.

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“When this situation comes again in 6-7 months in our series in Sri Lanka, then a home series against Australia, how we can do better and what technical changes we need to make, we’ll individually try to seek answers and try to do better,” continued Rahul, with India needing a massive boost after a very poor stretch in Test cricket over the last 12 months.

Rahul reiterated that in addition to having access to former teammates like Cheteshwar Pujara, a model of batting against spin who this generation of Indian cricketers has greatly missed, the team would seek assistance from players from the past.

“We used to play spin better in the past, we’ll reach out to those players, our seniors, and will try to learn,” concluded Rahul, who will lead India in the ODI series against South Africa this week.