India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said that a shift in mindset towards playing high-quality pace bowling may have seen the struggle against spin for India, the team that is known to be good against the turning ball. A near full-strength India team failed to step up against spin, losing as many as 27 wickets, in the recent ODI series against Sri Lanka, something that Ryan ten Doeschate hopes to work on.
“The Indian mindset has become so driven to do well overseas that the focus has moved away from what was once their strength-playing spin,” Ryan ten Doeschate said in an interview with TalkSport Cricket. “I guess one of the challenges that I wasn’t expecting and kind of overlooked is the playing of spin.”
“[We] were undone in Sri Lanka, and I think the mindset of the Indians has been such that they are so driven to do well overseas. I think the focus has moved to doing well in Australia and doing well in England, and we’ve kind of let playing spin, which was always the strength of the Indian team, fall back a little bit. So that’s one thing I’m looking forward to, helping get to that position where Indians are the best players of spin in the world again,” he again stated.
However, Ryan ten Doeschate is one of three assistant coaches who is working under new head coach Gautam Gambhir. While Morne Morkel is likely to work on the bowling front, the responsibility for batting issues will be divided between Abhishek Nayar and ten Doeschate as well. He also said that the remedial work was unlikely to get overly technical as well.
“I don’t think much of what we’re going to bring is technical knowledge to these guys,” he said. “It’s more about mindsets, situational awareness, how we think they can control certain phases of the game. It’s about throwing ideas out there, de-briefing and keeping the mental space really good. That’s going to be really important.”
However, the new coaching staff took over the reins following India becoming world champions of the T20 format and they have major targets now i.e. the World Test Championship and the Champions Trophy as well.
“It’s exciting and kind of daunting at the same time,” he said. “In terms of what we’re looking forward to, qualifying for the WTC final. There’s a great opportunity with 10 Tests left, five in India [over the next couple of months] and then going to Australia [for five more at the end of 2024] is going to be great. Then in the medium term there’s the Champions Trophy. With only three ODIs left in the prep phase, it’s going to be really challenging to switch between the formats and get the team ready for that, which again is something they’re desperate to win.”
“Then in the next [WTC] cycle, the tour to England [summer of 2025] is going to be fantastic and then prepping the team for the [2026] T20 World Cup. In terms of timing, it’s quite difficult to walk into a team that’s just come back with the World Cup, but in terms of what’s ahead for the next 18 months, it’s mouth-watering as a coach. It’s all the series you want to be involved in and all the challenges you want to come up against,” Ryan ten Doeschate concluded.
