Ricky Ponting's blunt analysis of India's spin troubles: Could the IPL be the reason?

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting shares the belief that Indian batters face difficulties when playing against spin bowlers. Following their recent 0-3 defeat to New Zealand in a Test series, which marked the hosts' first loss at home in over a decade, Ponting pointed out that India's struggle against spin played a major role in their downfall.

The former Australia World Cup-winning captain also feels that the tendency of Indian batters to play in an aggressive manner might have resulted due to the Indian Premier League (IPL). In the series against New Zealand, one saw Indian batters trying to hit their way out of trouble, and no one apart from Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant, was able to show confidence in their defence.

“I think the one thing it (whitewash) does probably say is it’s really starting to highlight India’s vulnerability against good quality spin bowling. It seems as though the skill of the modern Indian batsmen of playing spin is probably not what it used to be," Ricky Ponting told ICC.

“Maybe because they’re playing on different wickets in India that are probably for the fast bowlers a bit more, maybe because there are more high-quality fast bowlers in India now that they’re not playing as much spin bowling as they did. Maybe it’s the IPL or how much IPL cricket they’re playing that the younger players are learning the game that way rather than the way that players did 15 or 20 years ago,” he added.

Earlier this year, India faced an ODI series against Sri Lanka, and it was the spinners there as well, which troubled the Indian batting lineup, which had the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

In the series against Sri Lanka, India lost 27 off their 30 wickets to spinners.

The same problem surfaced in the Test series against New Zealand as spinners Ajaz Patel, Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips ran riot.

Speaking about New Zealand's win against India, Ponting said, "That's a huge result. One that I wasn't expecting, to be honest, more so, when you look at it with Kane Williamson not being there. When you think about his (Williamson’s) record in the subcontinent, the sort of the rock and the leader that he's been for that team.”

With the series loss against New Zealand, India now find themselves in a spot of bother, when it comes to making the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

India need to win 4-0 or 5-0 against Australia now, to make it to the final, without depending on other results.