"We dented confidence of our batters" Harbhajan Singh blames spin-friendly pitches for batters' struggles against spinners

Harbhajan Singh suggested a solution to rectify Indian batters’ struggles against spinners in recent years.

Legendary off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has blamed the spin-friendly pitches used in test cricket in India for the Indian batters’ struggles against spinners in recent years.

Many cricket pundits have criticized the Indian batting unit after their shambolic 2-0 series loss against Sri Lanka in the three-match ODI series. India lost 27 wickets out of 30 against the Sri Lankan spin-bowling attack on a spin-friendly pitch in Colombo.

We’ve started playing on pitches that turn a lot more: Harbhajan Singh

Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh opined that playing on spin-friendly pitches at home in test cricket is the major reason behind the Indian batters’ struggling against quality spin-bowling attacks on surfaces that offer any assistance.

Harbhajan Singh reckons the lack of big scores of the Indian batters in home tests could have dented their confidence. He added that the situation can be improved if Indian cricketers play on good pitches that start offering turn from day three and not day one.

“We’ve started playing on pitches that turn a lot more. We wanted to win and we did win but we wanted to win in two and a half days. I think, if we had produced normal pitches that started to turn from Day 3 and Day 4, we still would have won but the batters would have gotten time to settle in. And we wouldn’t be discussing the problems of our batters against spinners. We dented the confidence of our batters because anybody gets out (cheaply) on those pitches,” Harbhajan told Sports Tak.

“We still have a chance (to rectify this). If we play on good pitches, I don’t think anyone can beat India. The pacers that India have, the spin attack that there is, they would definitely win you Tests on Day 5 if not on Day 3. But if you play on good pitches, the batters will score runs, and their confidence will only go up when they score runs. So I don’t think our batters have forgotten to play spin but the conditions have been such (in the last few years) that it has become almost impossible,” he added.

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