Five ways India can regain Test stronghold, especially at home

What is the ideal home pitch for India? What is the best type of surface to heighten their relative strengths over their opposition? This debate has made India go back and forth between square turners and true batting surfaces multiple times over the last decade, and the two pitches against South Africa, in Kolkata and Guwahati, only showed that neither kind can neutralise the threat of a strong opposition.

Two things must be noted, though. South Africa's victory came on the back of all-timer performances by a visiting fast bowler (Marco Jansen) and a visiting spinner (Simon Harmer) in India. Not too many touring teams can call on attacks that good; most times, India are likely to have the better attack for Indian conditions. It remains in their interests, notwithstanding what happened in Guwahati, to broaden rather than narrow that gap in skill and depth between their attack and the visiting attack. This, as this in-depth study from the analyst Himanish Ganjoo shows, is best achieved on pitches with balance between bat and ball.

There will be losses to good teams, and times when losing the toss hurt India. But those things can happen on sharp turners too.

More importantly, good batting pitches with true bounce are better for India's long-term development. They incentivise the team to pick batters who have the all-round game to score hundreds against good bowling, and fast bowlers and spinners who aren't just putting the ball on a spot and expecting the pitch to do the rest.

On these pitches, players can believe that good processes will beget good outcomes in the long run. This is particularly important for batters; it becomes extremely difficult to trust your processes if you are doing everything right and averaging 20 over a season because the pitches are treacherous. Selection also tends to become more reactionary in these situations.

For a team in transition, selection will need to be anything but reactionary. India need to pick their best players and give them time to prove themselves. This is definitely a more straightforward process when pitches allow you to judge players properly.

Axar Patel's selection in Kolkata made a lot of sense in theory. A fast, accurate left-arm spinner on a turning pitch against a team full of right-hand batters. An excellent lower-order batter with multiple gears, particularly against spin.

India starting day three of the match with Axar and Ravindra Jadeja in tandem also made sense in theory.

But watching Corbin Bosch play out Axar comfortably, and watching Axar struggle to test the right-handers' outside edge right through that spell, showed that theory can only go so far. This was clearly a bowler who had played his last Test match in February 2024, and his only first-class match since then in September 2024. This was clearly a bowler who hadn't taken more than two wickets in a first-class innings since December 2022.

Axar is a fine cricketer, but he hasn't been a genuine Test bowler for a while. He gets into India's home squads because he's never expected to be the lead spinner, because he usually only plays as a third spinner -- in Kolkata he was one of four -- and is picked as much, or more, for his batting than his bowling.

Being able to call on three spin-bowling allrounders in Jadeja, Axar and Washington Sundar at home can be a luxury. The batting depth provided by R Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar proved to be a cheat code for India during their 2023 home series against Australia, rescuing them from a number of hairy situations.

Axar barely bowled during that series, though, even though the pitches were extremely spin-friendly. Even on those pitches, the gaps in his bowling were clear when you watched what Ashwin and Jadeja did from their ends.

Axar only played four first-class matches between that series and this one against South Africa. It's not his fault, because he's a white-ball regular, but India will have to figure out what to do about this situation. If he's too valuable a white-ball asset to give him time to develop his red-ball game, India should perhaps not pick him for Tests.

Washington presents a different case. He has had an extremely unusual early-career trajectory -- batter at junior level, new-ball spinner when he broke through in the IPL, white-ball specialist who hadn't played a first-class match in three-and-a-half years when he made his accidental Test debut at the Gabba in January 2021 -- which is now mirrored by his shifting role from Test match to Test match. He batted only once in the two Tests against West Indies, and batted at No. 3 in his very next Test match, in Kolkata. He bowled just the one over in that game, followed by 48 in Guwahati.

The thing about Washington is that he is capable of doing everything he's asked to do, and do it competently. He is a cricketer of frightening ability. Whether it's the match-saving century at Old Trafford, the crucial wickets in England or the long hours of high-control batting in Kolkata, the things he's done are impressive but never surprising.

But sometimes he can look like an offspinner who's only taken 99 wickets in 46 first-class matches. He goes through a fair share of tidy but unthreatening spells, and spends long hours out of the attack when two right-handers are at the crease -- imagine that ever happening to Ashwin. He often looks like the third spinner in a three-spinner attack, and in Kolkata like the fourth spinner in a four-spinner attack.

What do India do about a player like him? Perhaps the obvious answer is what they did in Kolkata. Washington has the game to bat in the top order, so India may be best served picking him as a batter, and using his bowling regularly but not counting him among their bowlers when they pick their XIs. This would ensure they don't look short of wicket-taking options in conditions that don't suit him, but always have his offspin around should they need it.

The third young -- or youngish; Axar is in his early 30s now -- allrounder in India's squad, Nitish Kumar Reddy, presents the most straightforward case. After two series of batting behind the other allrounders and barely bowling at all, it must be clear to India that he does not merit selection in home Tests -- not yet anyway. And while he certainly has the potential to be a Test allrounder in the future, are India really developing that potential by playing him in home Tests, and not using him, when he could be getting innings and overs under the belt in domestic cricket?

Anyone bowling in the same match as Harmer in Kolkata and Guwahati was at a disadvantage. Even spinners as good as Jadeja and Keshav Maharaj looked inadequate in comparison.

For India, though, Harmer was a reminder of a bowler who had been an ever-present in home Tests until this season, Ashwin, a fingerspinner who could take wickets in a variety of ways across a variety of conditions, with old ball and new, by bowling quick and attacking the stumps on turning pitches, by beating batters with drift and dip on flatter tracks.

The predominant trend of square turners in Ashwin's final years possibly led to India losing sight of the difference between him and Jadeja on the one hand and Washington and Axar on the other. Ashwin and Jadeja, as good as they were with the bat, were automatic picks in India's home XIs even purely as bowlers.

This is not the case with Axar and Washington, and it becomes clearer when they bowl on flatter tracks.

Who are India's best genuine red-ball spinners after Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav?

Running through the list of spinners who have played for India A in recent years presents a slightly concerning picture, with all three non-Test spinners selected this year -- Harsh Dubey, Tanush Kotian and Manav Suthar -- falling under the allrounder category.

These may well be the best domestic spinners India have, but if not, Harmer's displays should make the selectors ask themselves whether they are prioritising utility or all-conditions wicket-taking skills.

It was no accident that Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma took over India's middle order from Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. Even two or three years before the old guard began to exit the Test stage, these were the younger names tipped to take over by most seasoned watchers of Indian cricket.

Now, with all of Pujara, Kohli, Rahane and Rohit (who finished as an opener) done with Test cricket, there is no obvious next generation of specialist middle-order batters, barring Shubman Gill at No. 4. Shreyas Iyer, whose back issues have put his red-ball career at an impasse for the moment, was perhaps the last batter other than Gill who was widely tipped to have a long stint in India's middle order.

Since Iyer's debut in 2021-22, India's middle-order debutants have been Suryakumar Yadav, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal and B Sai Sudharsan. Sarfaraz is the only one of the five to average above 50 in first-class cricket.

This is a complete breakaway from the history of selection in Indian cricket. While there has always been the odd exception, an eye-catching first-class record over a decent sample size has generally been a prerequisite for Test selection.

There are reasons for the departure from this long-established norm. With the increase of teams in the Ranji Trophy and a possible dilution of talent in consequence, and with pitches often tailored to home teams' needs at a given point in a season, the selectors have come to view runs and wickets in this tournament as a less reliable barometer for selection than performances for India A.

And with the IPL and even state-run T20 leagues pulling the best raw talent in the country towards honing their white-ball rather than red-ball skills, the selectors perhaps also feel the batters best equipped to handle pace and spin bowling at Test level -- the ones with the best judgment of length, above all, who give the illusion of having more time -- may not have particularly good first-class records or even play that much first-class cricket.

Because of this, though, and because India have multi-skilled players such as Jadeja, Washington and Dhruv Jurel who are good enough to bat in the top six, the selectors have ended up having to answer some uncomfortable questions.

As good as Washington is, would he be batting at No. 3 ahead of a specialist in a previous era? As good as Jurel is, and as irresistible as his form may be, would he be playing ahead of the specialist middle-order reserve in an India squad from a previous era? And how good is that specialist middle-order reserve if he is getting left out for a lower-order batter simply because he bats left-handed?

Having gone through these questions, if the selectors still feel Sai Sudharsan and Padikkal are the best middle-order batters in India other than Gill, this is the time to stick with them. That might, in itself, be the hardest call to make.

But beyond the next Test selection, there are broader questions to address. If the selectors and team management feel the Ranji Trophy isn't a good-enough indicator of player quality, it might be time for the BCCI to turn it into the best tournament it could be. This could mean changing the tournament format, or setting stringent standards for pitches, or - here's a radical thought - increasing match fees to a point where the best talent in the country is clamouring to be part of it.

Between now and their next WTC Test in August, India have a T20 World Cup to prepare for and defend. They have ODIs to play, involving Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. There is an IPL season too.

White-ball cricket will dominate the domestic scene for a while too, with the Ranji Trophy taking a mid-season break until mid-January.

India have the same coaching staff and the same selectors for white-ball and red-ball cricket, and all of them will have a lot of white-ball cricket to keep their minds on in this period. But they will have reviewed the defeats to South Africa, and identified areas of concern they will want to address by the time India play their next Test. The addressing will have to begin as soon as possible.

It could mean finding ways for the best red-ball players in the country to keep playing matches even outside the Ranji Trophy windows. It could mean arranging A tours after the Ranji final in late February, and between the IPL and the Sri Lanka tour.

Whatever India do, they will not want to be caught off-guard by a better-prepared and better-equipped Sri Lanka - who might well have brighter prospects of making the WTC final at that stage - when they begin that tour.