"There’s something seriously wrong" - Anil Kumble on India's batting vs spin

Former India leg-spinner and head coach Anil Kumble feels “there’s something seriously wrong” with India’s current batting unit. The 54-year-old wants Indian batters to stop living in denial and accept they haven’t been good against spin.

Kumble’s remarks come after India were whitewashed 3-0 by New Zealand, making Rohit Sharma and his men the first Indian team to get whitewashed at home (minimum of three Tests). India failed to chase down a simple target of 147 in the third Test in Mumbai, falling short by 25 runs. Ajaz Patel walked out with 11 wickets in the game, while Glenn Phillips too chipped in with four.

“This has consistently happened over the last three Test matches. Whenever the spinners come on, there hasn’t been a noticeable improvement from one game to the next. A couple of players have made certain adjustments, which has helped in the batting lineup, but collectively, as a batting unit, they haven’t been able to avoid those collapses," Kumble shared on JioCinema and Sports18.

“This has happened far too often in a single session, which is a concern. For this lineup to say, ‘There’s nothing wrong’ — I think there’s something seriously wrong here. The most challenging part is accepting that there’s a problem. I’m sure that when this Indian team sits down to introspect, they’ll recognise that there is indeed a serious issue that needs to be addressed.”

In the three-match Test series, Rishabh Pant (66) and Washington Sundar (44.5) were the only two Indian batters to average more than 30 against spin. The likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal (25.6), Shubman Gill (29.5) and Sarfaraz Khan (23.5) did get some runs but failed to dominate spin on a longer basis. And when it comes to playing spin, we all know how terrible Virat Kohli (16.75) and skipper Rohit Sharma (10.5) have been of late.

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