New turn: Delhi surface a throwback to earlier times

OVER the last few years, Tests in India have seen spinners bag a hatful of wickets thanks to wickets conducive for the slower bowlers.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

Strips were designed to accentuate the strengths of the hosts but it inadvertently kept bringing in the away tweakers into the conversation.

The end result? It gave the likes of Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, Tom Hartley, Todd Murphy and Shoaib Bashir a foothold into games. Sure, R Ashwin, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja benefited from those strips but it narrowed the skills gap between themselves and spinners from abroad.

It looks like India are now happy to go back to a time when they backed their spinners to come out on top on tracks which would take time to deteriorate. In fact, one saw the effects of that in play on Day Two of the second Test between India and West Indies. Jomel Warrican, no stranger to bowling in Asia, expected the wickets to do more because he had seen the ball ‘turn square’ in the series against New Zealand and West Indies.