The Jinx and spin woes

The pitch had just started to allow the ball to turn. The bounce was always there. And, Nathan Lyon is a smart offie. He joined the club of spinners that were evoked Ajinkya Rahane’s trouble against spin. The right-hander in the season has been dismissed by Mitchell Santner, Jeetan Patel, Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali, Steve O’Keefe and now, Nathan Lyon. Today, he was dismissed by a spinner for the 11th time in 15 innings.

Lyon bowled one wide outside off stump. Rahane walked, rather, attempted to dance down the pitch. While a stroll down the wicket means that the batsman is about to attack, attempt an aerial shot or loft one for a maximum. But none of that happened. The bat didn’t connect with the ball and it went past the outside edge.

He was miles out of his the crease. Though Matthew Wade fumbled once but the distance between Rahane and the crease was way too much. The wicketkeeper exploited that and there it was, an awkward dive followed by a disastrous dismissal. The stumps had fallen and the bails were flying.

Rahane is usually India’s go-to man on an overseas tour. But, he seriously struggles at home, and when he had the chance to redeem himself, he was unable to. He has registered just one fifty in the last 10 innings at home. The exclusive one came against Bangladesh (82 of 133). He has a mere total of 244 runs in his name since his last big outing of 188 against New Zealand at Indore with a tally off 11 innings.

Also read- Stats: Indian batsmen who missed most Tests between two appearances

The lack of confidence in his defence has generated other concerns. He was called India’s most technically sound batsman, with proper textbook shots under his belt, so what is it that has stopped him from translating his expertise as a potential Test batsman?

Well, his strike rate and average in the limited-overs formats mean that he is not a perpetual member of the XI. But, there are reasons why Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli have stress upon backing Rahane. He has over 2400 runs in his name, 8 centuries out of which only two have come at home, and he has dominated mostly all oppositions, but it’s important to keep in mind that he has just 825 runs that have come at home. The root of this issue can be associated with his failure to tackle spin.

It’s important to note that despite the special efforts put in by his mentor, Praveen Amre, Rahane failed to upgrade his poor show at home. Moreover, the fact that this home season had something different to offer because the four series’ so far were all on tracks that cannot be labeled as typical Indian rank-turners (Except for Pune. That pitch was a spitting cobra). Throughout, we did see some brilliant spin performances, but more of run-fests accompanied with instances of some memorable fast bowling beauties. Again, a chance of redemption was let off.

When Rahane was rested in the England series due to a finger injury, Karun Nair came in and made a mark with his triple ton. In spite of that performance, he was expected to make way for his senior the moment he recovered as they entered the series against Australia. Coach Kumble showed his confidence in Rahane when he said, “There’s no question of looking at dropping Rahane. He’s scored really well… He’s been extremely successful over the last couple of years. There’s absolutely no question about that.”

The No. 6 spot will raise doubts in the future again: Karun Nair or Ajinkya Rahane? Ironically, today both of them were embarrassingly stumped. However, the difference in Nair’s short-lived innings was that he played spin better, appeared to have more intent, ease and took risks with partial success before falling to that ugly stumping.

Let’s face it. Rahane’s technique against spin is flawed. Initially, his front foot stride while defending was short. I once saw an image of Rahane and Tendulkar comparing the strides, pointing out Tendulkar’s appropriate huge one while Rahane’s inability to replicate the ideal defending position. When that improved, things started to change too. But now, a problem lies and the core issue still remains his inability to tackle spin + bounce. And, the Chinnaswamy pitch today was exactly those two words.

In his dismissals, he has been caught 30 times, dismissed lbw 8 times and bowled and caught behind 7 times each. Because of his attempts to dominate the bowlers by trying to hit them for big shots, he now has been caught as his ‘most preferred’ mode of dismissal. And more often than not, the bowlers have been spinners.

He must also look to rotate the strike, one more department that Nair has an upper hand in. His trouble in settling has resulted in a string of low scores, if he has to change that, he must improvise upon this aspect from scratch. When he settles and crosses the 30-run mark, he can then play the plethora of shots he has in his armory.

Kohli’s trouble with swing back then is similar to Rahane’s case. The key is evolving the technique and keeping the mindset positive, consistency and good scores will follow automatically. He has had bad luck with injuries and mediocre performances in the shorter formats and his failure at home can become the last nail in the coffin, but don’t be deceived by the short-statured man. When he gets going, he will make your jaws drop open repeatedly, leaving you enthralled by his class and picturesque shots. Ajinkya Rahane will hope to work this out because he is too good a player to have bad scores at home.