Swept aside: How India keep forgetting their answer to spin

23-1-87-2

18-0-126-1

These are composite figures of spinners of each side in an ODI in India. Anybody who didn't watch the said match or didn't know the result would think that the former numbers are India's. Washington Sundar's dad might even admonish them for not taking more wickets. Those who watched the match or followed the result know those are New Zealand's numbers, featuring a 31-year-debutant fingerspinner. And that Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja were the ineffective ones.

The conditions changed quite dramatically from the afternoon to the evening. It wasn't dew per se, which would make gripping the ball difficult. It was just the moisture underneath that took away all the hold from the pitch. Also, Kuldeep had an off night after Daryl Mitchell successfully targeted his first over, bowling flatter and flatter, failing to do what KL Rahul, the wicketkeeper, kept asking him to do: make the batters play forward.

However, as it often happens in cycles in Indian cricket, the biggest difference between the two sides was the near absence of a type of shot in India's innings. In the 43rd over, Rahul played a reverse-sweep off Michael Bracewell for four, the only sweep of any kind in 23 overs of spin. New Zealand played different varieties of the sweep, including the lap for four in Kuldeep's first over, 13 times for 23 runs.

It is obvious by now that it is not just the runs that you get from the sweep. It is equally the shorter or overpitched deliveries you draw by playing that shot. The reverse-sweep has the power to waste one of the nine fielders. It is common knowledge that India don't quite exploit the sweep well enough. So common that a cursory comment from R Ashwin on X wondered what the difference in sweep numbers of both the sides would be.

This process repeats itself in Indian cricket. Once in a while, India lose a match because they don't play spin well enough. They work on the shot in the nets. They play the shot more often to good effect. They start winning again. They forget the sweep shot. And then one fine day, they get caught on a surface that you can't just keep scoring down the ground off spinners. The opposition sweeps well. India lose. Back to step one.

In Dubai during the last year's Champions Trophy, for example, when India expected spin to be used extensively, they swept eight and seven times in the two matches against New Zealand. It is not a lot, but perhaps just enough to disrupt the opposition spinners. By contrast, on the fateful November 19, 2023, in the ODI World Cup final, they didn't expect the conditions to be as difficult as they were, and played only two sweeps in 18 overs of spin.

Between that World Cup final and now, India have outswept the opposition only two times. In Cuttack against England, it was down to Rohit Sharma batting deep and Axar Patel getting promoted. In Raipur against South Africa, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal pushed up the numbers.

Now you can't play Gaikwad and Jaiswal for two other successful and proven batters just because they play the sweep well. However, Axar's exclusion from the ODI squads in favour of Jadeja remains a baffling decision because not only does Axar bring in a left-hand variation in the batting order, he also is a spin disruptor. Hopefully it is just workload management.

As always, not disrupting spinners is not a glaring or irreversible kink in India's game. It is just about being more proactive when they come up against an accurate spinner on a holding pitch. Jayden Lennox showed admirable control on debut, starting India's rut with a first spell of 5-0-18-0, but we will never know how he would have responded had he been swept around by his own side's batters.

Indore, the venue for the decider, is a small ground known for big scores so India might not even need to sweep there, but you will likely see them sweep more in the nets for a while now. However, it is more about making it second nature for an otherwise formidable batting unit so that we don't go "hmm did they sweep enough?" the next time they come across a slow pitch out of the blue.