'Batters have grown increasingly desperate': Gambhir's assistant coach explains India's spin difficulties

India's batting performance in Sri Lanka left many surprised, including head coach Gautam Gambhir and his staff. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted that he had underestimated the Indian players' ability to face spin bowling and was taken aback by their impressive performance.

India lost the ODI series they played as part of the white ball tour of the country, they first time they lost a 50-over bilateral series to Sri Lanka since 1997. They looked particularly clueless against the hosts' spinners, with spin accounting for 27 Indian wickets in the series. Captain Rohit Sharma said that this was an area that needed some addressing.

Ten Doeschate said that this was a challenge that he wasn't expecting but one he is looking forward to tackling. The former Netherlands all-rounder said that the years of concentrating on being better at facing fast bowling to win matches overseas may have affected some Indian batters' ability to face quality spinners.

"One of the challenges I wasn't expecting and I kind of overlooked is the playing of spin by Indian batters," ten Doeschate told TalkSport Cricket. "We got undone in Sri Lanka."

"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."

‘Not going to bring too much technical knowledge to these guys’

Ten Doeschate, who is one of two assistant coaches in Gambhir's staff along with Abhishek Nayar, said that he isn't going to be too concerned with working on the technical aspects of the Indian players.

"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," he said.

The 44-year-old is widely rated as the greatest player to have played for an associate nation. He was also prolific in English County cricket, scoring 11,298 runs at an average of 44.30 with 29 centuries and taking 214 wickets in 203 first class cricket. Since retiring in 2021, Ten Doeschate has been active as a coach, working with Kent, Kolkata Knight Riders and, more recently, LA Knight Riders in Major League Cricket. His current assignment is easily his most high profile one yet.

"It's exciting and kind of daunting at the same time," he said. "In terms of what we're looking forward to, qualifying for the WTC final [next June is a goal]. There's a great opportunity with 10 Tests left, five in India [over the next couple of months] and then going to Australia [for five more at the end of 2024] is going to be great," said Ten Doeschate.

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