Former captain Sunil Gavaskar attributed India's struggle to claim 20 wickets on good pitches to the format of Indian domestic cricket.
Gavaskar highlighted the recent Duleep Trophy final where East Zone settled for a first-innings lead over South Zone without attempting an outright win.
The batting marathon culture in domestic red-ball tournaments prevents bowlers from learning the stamina and skill needed to take ten second-innings wickets.
India missed a chance to complete a 2-0 sweep against Sri Lanka after Sonal Dinusha batted through the fifth and final day in Colombo. The Shubman Gill-led side again failed to take 20 wickets in a Test, and that has become a growing problem for India in the longest format.
The issue has also left India fifth in the World Test Championship standings. Sunil Gavaskar has linked that weakness to the way domestic cricket is structured in India.
The 1983 World Cup-winning former India captain pointed to the recent Duleep Trophy and argued that a system that rewards teams for a first-innings lead does little to teach bowlers how to dismiss sides twice. He used East Zone’s title win as the latest example of the problem.
How Does A Team Learn
Gavaskar’s case rests on a recent final.
He cited the Duleep Trophy, where Ishan Kishan’s East Zone won the title on the basis of a first-innings lead. Gavaskar argued that the match showed why bowlers in domestic cricket do not get enough chances to learn how to force outright wins.
East Zone batted for two days and piled up 708 runs. Ishan led from the front with 270, while South Zone were left trying to stay alive rather than push for a result.
Gavaskar was blunt in his Mid-Day column.
"The disappointing part was that East Zone did not go for an outright win and instead prolonged their second innings unnecessarily. That both skippers agreed to end the game earlier than scheduled also doesn’t sit well," Gavaskar wrote.
He further argued, "If the game was to be stopped early, then why wasn’t it stopped at lunchtime itself, when it was clear that in the two sessions remaining, South Zone was never going to chase down a score more than 650 runs."
Taking 20 Wickets Is A Skill
He then tied that approach directly to India’s recent Test struggles. "This business of the first innings lead being enough, is one of the main reasons India struggle to take 20 wickets on good pitches," he added.
"How does a team learn to take 20 wickets if they don’t bowl in two innings in a domestic game? India huffed and puffed on the last day of the second Test in Sri Lanka and couldn’t take the last four wickets for a victory."
Gavaskar also argued that taking 10 wickets in the second innings is a skill that must be learnt over time.
"Just like it takes time for a batter to learn how to go from 20 and 30 to a half-century and from 70 and 80 to a century, so also understanding how to get 10 wickets in the second innings takes time. There’s the question of stamina, of course, for after four days of tense cricket, not just the physical but the mental stress also can be too much," he wrote.
He added that domestic cricket should be where players build that ability. "And the one way to learn how to deal with that is at the first-class level. But, if a team that has taken a huge first innings lead is simply not interested in being on the field again, then how does one get the experience?" he wrote.
