It has been seen that the batsmen of India and Pakistan face a lot of trouble against left-arm spinners. In the first Test against Bangladesh, left-arm spinner Tejul Islam took seven wickets in an inning against Pakistan while left-arm spinners took all 17 wickets against India in the Mumbai Test. Ajaz Patel took 14 and Rachin Ravindra took three wickets.
Actually our batsmen are no longer used to play quality left arm spin bowling. If a good spinner comes in front, then our hands and feet swell. One reason for this is because there is a lot of T20 and ODI cricket and in front of such bowlers, we are not using the steps as much as we should. Mayank Agarwal made good use of the steps especially in front of Ajaz Patel and the result is in front of you. Mayank scored more than 200 runs in this test and was adjudged man of the match.
Batsmen of the time like Dilip Vengsarkar, Parthasarathi Sharma, Ashok Mankad, Ajay Sharma, Milind Gunjal and Bhaskar Pillai used to make good use of their steps against spinners. These batsmen did not allow the spinner to freeze in front of them. It used to be very difficult for the spinner to dominate in front of them. Similarly, Gundappa Vishwanath used to face the spinners very well on the back foot. Now even after taking one leg out, the batsman thinks whether he is making a mistake. If you play with fear like this, you are giving such spinners a chance to dominate against you.
Today, even if you throw an ordinary ball on the turning track, it will turn. A left-arm spinner makes a better anticipation that the batsman will play the shot considering the ball to be a turn and he traps the batsman with an arm ball. In our time, LBW was not given to the batsman on the front foot but today it is given due to which the batsmen have started playing under more pressure.
In such a situation, if the batsman plays standing, he will come under pressure and his chances of getting caught by closing fielders or LBW will increase. The approach of batsmen to play is defensive, which increases the chances of his getting out.
The author has played 35 Tests and 59 ODIs for Team India as a left arm spinner.
