Ryan ten Doeschate, the Indian assistant coach, is looking forward to improving India’s play against spin after a tough ODI series against Sri Lanka away. The former Netherlands player talked about how India let their spin batting “fall back a little bit” in their focus to do well in overseas conditions, especially in Australia and England.
Notably, India lost the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka 0-2, failing to tackle the high class spin bowling in tough batting conditions. They ended up losing 27 wickets out of 30 in the series, catching a lot of flak from the supporters and critics.
“One of the challenges I wasn’t expecting and I kind of overlooked is the playing of spin by Indian batters. We got undone in Sri Lanka,” remarked Ryan ten Doeschate on TalkSport Cricket. In the next couple of months, India are slated to play Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand in home conditions, where the assistant coach wants to work on the spin game of the batters.
I’m looking forward to helping Indians become best players of spin in the world again: Ryan ten Doeschate
He was quoted as saying, “The mindset of India has been such that they’ve been so desperate to do well overseas. The focus has moved to doing well in Australia, England [so] that we’ve kind of let playing spin, which was always a strength of the Indian team, fall back a little bit. That’s one thing I’m looking forward to helping with, getting to that position where Indians are the best players of spin in the world again.”
Ryan ten Doeschate has familiar faces in the Indian setup including head coach Gautam Gambhir and fellow assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, with whom he has already worked at Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Prior to joining the Indian cricket team, he was a part of the LA Knight Riders setup in the Major League Cricket (MLC).