Ravichandran Ashwin Tears Into India's 'Shell-Shocked Pathetic Batting' vs South Africa

Indian batters gave a poor account of themselves in the recently concluded two-Test series against South Africa. In the first Test, India could not chase a 124-run target, while in the second Test, the hosts lost by 408 runs. India spin great Ravichandran Ashwin was not at all happy with the way the batters crumbled. For South Africa, spinner Simon Harmer took 17 wickets, while pacer Marco Jansen claimed 12. Ashwin termed the batting "pathetic and shell-shocked."

"It was absolutely shell-shocked, pathetic batting. I have been saying this for the past 3-4 years that the players we have don't attempt the sweep shot. When we lost in the New Zealand series, you would find that the New Zealand batters defended the ball by sweeping. Their defence wasn't their defence. Rather, their sweep was their defence. If you give them two deliveries, they would defend once and try a sweep or a reverse sweep. And they practice and are very, very good at it," Ashwin said on his Ash ki Baat show on his YouTube channel.

"As a spinner who is encountering this, you need runs on the scoreboard. If you have 250-260 runs on the board, these sweeps can be blocked and you can even take a wicket with a good ball. If you are getting all out for 140, 150, 160 and you are behind in the game, you have to run to catch up. And when I say pathetic batting, there is no ability to trust the defence. Tristan Stubbs got out defending badly. But he played 400 balls in this Test series. Even if he had a bad defence, he was ready to back that. He didn't have the greatest of defence, but we didn't have the ability to get past his defence. He eventually ended up making 94 runs."

Ashwin was extra critical of the Indian batters' defence against spin.

"The fact of the matter is, how are our batters playing good defence to make Simon Harmer earn his wickets? You tell me something-barring Rishabh Pant's ball which bounced-how many of our batters actually had good defence? If there's fault in your defence, you'll play shots. Many a time, we are also at fault. When these batters take on spinners and keep on playing big shots, we keep on saying that's the way to play, that's his game. No bhaisaab, you have to play defence. All great cricketers have created their game around a solid defence. What is good batsmanship? Good batsmanship is mixing intent with defence. What is intent? When you can positively defend. I am harping on this that it is not about an individual-I am talking about the failure to address our defence against spin. We are now probably one of the poorest spin-playing nations in the world," he added

Topics mentioned in this article

Ravichandran Ashwin India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team India vs South Africa 2025, India Cricket