India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate believes that the national team’s recent focus on mastering high-quality fast bowling might have inadvertently impacted their historically strong performance against spin. The recent ODI series defeat to Sri Lanka highlighted this vulnerability, with a near full-strength India side losing 27 wickets to spin. Ten Doeschate is keen to address this issue and restore India’s prowess against the turning ball, a strength that has characterized Indian cricket for decades.
“The Indian mindset has become so driven to do well overseas that the focus has moved away from what was once their strength—playing spin,” ten Doeschate explained during an interview with TalkSport Cricket. He continued, “One of the challenges I wasn’t expecting and kind of overlooked is the playing of spin. We were undone in Sri Lanka, and I think the mindset of the Indians has been such that they are so driven to do well overseas. I think the focus has moved to doing well in Australia and doing well in England, and we’ve kind of let playing spin, which was always the strength of the Indian team, fall back a little bit. So that’s one thing I’m looking forward to, helping get to that position where Indians are the best players of spin in the world again.”
Ten Doeschate is part of a refreshed coaching staff led by the newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir. Alongside ten Doeschate, Morne Morkel and Abhishek Nayar will also play crucial roles. While Morkel is expected to contribute significantly to the bowling department, the responsibility of refining the batting strategy will be shared between Nayar and ten Doeschate. The Dutchman indicated that the approach to remedying India’s issues against spin will not necessarily focus heavily on technical aspects. “I don’t think much of what we’re going to bring is technical knowledge to these guys,” he mentioned. “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, debriefing, and keeping the mental space really good. That’s going to be really important.”
The new coaching team takes over at a critical juncture in India’s cricketing journey. Fresh off their triumph in the T20 World Cup, India now targets other significant trophies, including the World Test Championship (WTC) and the Champions Trophy. “It’s exciting and kind of daunting at the same time,” ten Doeschate commented. “We look forward to qualifying for the WTC final, with a great opportunity presented by the 10 Tests left—five in India over the next couple of months and another five in Australia at the end of 2024. The medium-term goal is the Champions Trophy, and with only three ODIs left in the prep phase, it’s going to be a challenge to switch between formats and get the team ready for that, as they are desperate to win it.”
Ten Doeschate emphasized the complexity and promise of the current and upcoming challenges. “In the next [WTC] cycle, the tour to England in the summer of 2025 will be fantastic, and then prepping the team for the T20 World Cup in 2026 will be crucial. It’s quite difficult to walk into a team that’s just come back with the World Cup, but in terms of what’s ahead for the next 18 months, it’s mouth-watering as a coach. These are all the series you want to be involved in and all the challenges you want to come up against.”
As India prepares for these significant cricketing engagements, ten Doeschate’s insights and experience will be crucial in reestablishing India’s dominance against spin, while balancing the demands of excelling in fast bowling in overseas tours. His holistic approach to coaching, focusing on mindset and mental conditioning alongside technical prowess, aims to bring out the best in a team that has already tasted recent success and has its eyes set on future glory. The collaboration between the coaching staff could prove the edge India needs to navigate through the demanding cricketing calendar that lies ahead.