Mumbai: In his first assignment as coach, Gautam Gambhir wouldn’t have thought the Indian batters would be undone by spin in Sri Lanka, in the ODIs played early this month.

As a player, Gambhir would be ready anytime the spinners came on. The left-handed batter would put them under pressure by using his feet, force them to alter their length and then dismantle them by pouncing when they went flatter. The former India top-order batter’s most famous innings came against Sri Lanka, in the 2011 ODI World Cup final, a match-winning top-score of 97 against a great spinner like Muttiah Muralitharan.

First up as coach though, it would have been tough to see Sri Lanka have the better of the exchanges. After scoring 230 in the first ODI, India were dismissed for 208 and 138 in the second and third games, losing the series 2-1.

On a slow, turning pitch, barring skipper Rohit Sharma who attacked the new ball with ease, the rest of the line-up struggled to cope. After the series, he said it is an area the team will address.

There’s no doubting the batters’ skill; at the top level, it is mainly about getting the gameplan right. While watching his batters’ embarrassing ways of dismissals in Colombo, Gambhir would have picked the chinks in their gameplan. India will have a preparatory camp ahead of the new season, and one of the tasks for the new coach will be to equip his batters with the skill to play spin on tough, slow tracks.

The lesson in the reversal was that you can’t let your guard down against any opposition. India will keep that in mind when they begin a long Test season with two home games against Bangladesh. It is another sub-continent team that follows a gameplan similar to Sri Lanka, and the importance of playing spin well will not be lost on the India batters.

In the last series between the two in 2022 played in Bangladesh, the home spinners had almost pulled off a victory in the second Test by reducing India to 74/7 while defending a target of 145. A fine rearguard display by R Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer helped save India the blushes in a tense chase.

Chennai, the first Test venue, generally aids spin, and the combination of Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who took a fifer in the last Test between the sides, and Shakib Al Hasan will again look to test the Indian batters.

In an interview to TalkSport Cricket, India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said the struggle against spin for Virat Kohli and Co in Sri Lanka was a surprise. For the Dutchman, ahead of the home Tests, the focus would be on preparation rather than being too technical.

As for the technical aspects, former Mumbai opener Zubin Bharucha, who held a successful week-long preparatory camp for Sri Lanka ahead of the limited overs series, points to Sunil Gavaskar’s mastery of batting on turning tracks. “There are so many things to it (playing spin on turning tracks). The key is you have to be able to play off both feet. If you look at Gavaskar, he was always on both feet (well balance). If the right leg is going back his left leg was also planted. You stay on both feet to enable you to place the ball in the gap. If you don’t, then you just push at it and play desperately,” says Bharucha. Two players from his Rajasthan Royals academy, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel, are in the Test squad.

Among the current India batters, Suryakumar Yadav is one of the best on such slow, turning tracks. “If you are not regularly playing Ranji Trophy or local cricket, you lose the feel of playing on such wickets. Surya, who has played a lot of local and domestic cricket, knows how to play on these tracks,” says Bharucha.

For Chandrakant Pandit, the highly successful domestic coach, it is about knowing which shots are on. He says: “If you look at Surya, he will sweep a left-arm spinner from outside the off-stump also, which creates a doubt in the bowler’s mind where to pitch it. Apart from the sweep shot, one has to develop the shot over cover, including inside-out, for the left-arm and leg-spinners. If he bowls flatter, the cut shot is on. Against the off-spinner, sweep and the slog sweep are very effective. These are the paying shots on turning tracks.”

A cramped schedule is a challenge for international players. Pandit says a short camp of around 10 days is good enough for sub-continent batters to adapt.

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