With so many left-handers, finger spin is the problem: India coach sounds alarm before Super 8

Ahmedabad, 21 June – An unbeaten record through the league phase has not masked India’s most pressing flaw ahead of the T20 World Cup Super 8, with assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate conceding that rival finger-spinners have “made it easier for the opposition” by exposing a left-hand heavy top order that has failed to dominate the middle overs.

India have already faced 42 overs of spin in the tournament, scoring 315 runs at a tick above seven an over while losing 15 wickets. Off-spin has been especially damaging: Pakistan’s finger spinners claimed 4-78 in 14 overs last start, while Netherlands’ Aryan Dutt returned 2-19 in four tidy overs on Wednesday. The sequence of soft dismissals has coincided with the slump of explosive opener Abhishek Sharma, who has registered three consecutive ducks and anchors a top three that is entirely left-handed—Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma. Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh and Axar Patel further swell the left-hand count, allowing opponents to set one-dimensional fields and wheel away through the likes of Dutt, USA’s spinners and, before them, Pakistan’s pair.

“The Dutch guys took pace off the ball a lot of the time,” ten Doeschate said after India’s final league outing. “And obviously teams are bowling a lot of finger spin to us, with so many left-handers in our lineup. That is a challenge. It has made it easier for the opposition. We don’t have many options. We’ve got Sanju sitting on the side.”

The concern moves from niggle to potential tournament breaker on Sunday when India open the Super 8 against South Africa, whose captain Aiden Markram, George Linde and Keshav Maharaj comprise a high-quality three-pronged spin attack. West Indies and Zimbabwe, the other sides in the group, are similarly well stocked: the Windies’ left-arm duo of Gudakesh Motie and Akeal Hosein, supported by off-spinner Roston Chase, stifled England at the Wankhede, while Zimbabwe will unleash Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl, Graeme Cremer and Wellington Masakadza on the same used surfaces.

Ten Doeschate believes conditions have amplified India’s troubles. “These two venues in particular—with a bigger boundary here and obviously a slower wicket in Colombo—exaggerate that,” he said. “But it’s something we’re going to have to focus on. With the amount of finger spin we’re going to get in the next three games, it’s going to be important that we dominate that phase of the game.”

The coach rejected the idea that the issue is new, pointing instead to a run of “really good batting tracks” in bilateral cricket over the past 18 months that masked technical frailties. “As soon as you come to a wicket that offers a bit of hold, it becomes a challenge,” he explained. “We need plans for wickets that do hold and where the boundaries are bigger. We need a clear game plan to deal with that threat.”

India’s catching has also slipped, but nothing looms larger than the post-Powerplay slowdown: for all the talk of intent, the batting unit’s scoring rate drops sharply once the field relaxes and the tweakers assume control. Fixing that imbalance, ten Doeschate insists, is non-negotiable if India are to survive a group where every opponent fancies spinning them out.