Team India’s spin attack has shown its dominance during the Sri Lanka tour, due to which the Indian team has reached the threshold of clean sweep in the Test series. But along with this, the problem of no-balls of Indian spinners has also worried. The team’s experienced spinner Ravindra Jadeja and new bowler Saransh Jain have proved to be the biggest culprits in this matter. In such a situation, the team’s spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule is on target and he has talked about working on it. But along with this, Bahutule has said that in Test cricket too, no-balls can be controlled by the free-hit rule.
How many no-balls in Colombo Test?
Indian spinners bowled more on the third and fourth days of the Colombo Test match. Till the fourth day of the match, a total of about 115 overs were played in both the innings of Sri Lanka. Saransh JainRavindra Jadeja and Manav Suthar did it. Out of these, 75 overs were bowled by Jadeja and Jain and in these 75 overs, both of them crossed the crease a total of 10 times i.e. 10 no-balls were bowled by both of them together. In the first innings, Jadeja took 3 no-balls and Jain took 2, while in the second innings, Jain took 4 no-balls and Jadeja took 1 no-ball.
Despite a run-up of only 5-6 steps, the spinners’ repeated no-balls like this raise questions and also put the team in trouble. In such a situation, it was natural to have questions from the coach. After the end of the fourth day’s play, spin coach Bahutule faced questions from the media. On the question of no-ball, Bahutule said that it has proved to be a matter of concern for the team many times and work on it is going on.
This cure to reduce no-balls?
Explaining the possible reason and solution for this, he said, “Many times, when wickets are not coming, the bowler puts extra effort for this and in this attempt a no-ball occurs, but this cannot be an excuse. But together with Jadeja and Saransh, there has been a lot of discussion and work is being done on their take-off point (where the bowler jumps before bowling the ball)… I am not a law maker but if there is a rule of free-hit (like ODI-T20) then there is a no-ball. There will be a reduction.”
Jadeja’s condition is bad, Saransh is also worried
How serious this problem is for Team India, let us understand it from some more figures. Ravindra Jadeja has bowled 88 no-balls in Test cricket since 2021, which is the highest among all spinners. Pakistani spinner Noman Ali (40) is at second place. Not only this, in the first innings of the Colombo Test, one of Jadeja’s wickets was snatched due to a no-ball. Jadeja had bowled 4 no-balls in the last test also. The first ball of Saransh, who was making his Test debut, was a no-ball in international cricket. In such a situation, until there is no cure for it, Team India will remain under the scanner.