Focus on playing fast bowling well has compromised India’s prowess against spin: assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate

India’s new assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate believes the focus on playing high-quality fast bowling may have inadvertently affected Indian batsmen’s game against spinners. The former Dutch cricketer, who joined the team during the ODI leg of the Sri Lankan tour, saw the batsmen crumbling on the slow turners in Colombo as they lost the three-match series 2-0.

Ten Doeschate, who has been involved in the IPL first as a player and then as a coach at Kolkata Knight Riders, said one of his focus areas would be to help Indian batsmen’s game against spinners. “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,” 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.” he added.

In the three ODIs in Colombo, where India chased targets between 230-250, they ended up losing 27 off their 30 wickets to spinners. India’s proficiency against spinners has been an issue for a while, especially in Tests, but has now spilled into the white-ball formats as well.

Ten Doeschate attributed this to Indian batsmen’s desire to do well in English and Australian conditions that has inadvertently made them compromise their natural strengths.

“We were undone in Sri Lanka, and I think the mindset of the Indians has been 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 said.

Under new head coach Gautam Gambhir, India don’t have a specialist batting coach, but apart from Ten Doeschate have Abhishek Nayar as assistant coach. The plan, Ten Doechate revealed, is to make mental adjustments rather than tweak the technical side of the game.

“I don’t think much of what we’re going to bring is technical knowledge to these guys. 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,” the Dutchman said.

Talking about his new role with the Indian team, where he was a surprise candidate handpicked by Gambhir, Ten Doeschate said it is ‘exciting and daunting at the same time’.

“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 mouthwatering as a coach. It’s all the series you want to be involved in and all the challenges you want to come up against,” he added.

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