Maybe it’s the IPL: Ricky Ponting on India batters’ recent inability to counter spin | Cricket News

A lot has been made about the current India batters’ inability to play spin and former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting agrees to that notion.
India recently went down to New Zealand 0-3 at home, a shocking result considering they had not lost a series in their own backyard in 12 years and Ponting feels it was the vulnerability of India batters against tweakers which brought about their downfall.
“I think the one thing it (whitewash) does probably say is it’s really starting to highlight India’s vulnerability against good quality spin bowling. It seems as though the skill of the modern Indian batsmen of playing spin is probably not what it used to be,” he said.
Ponting also felt that the tendency of Indian batters to play an aggressive style due to the IPL may have been a detriment.

“Maybe because they’re playing on different wickets in India that are probably for the fast bowlers a bit more, maybe because there are more high-quality fast bowlers in India now that they’re not playing as much spin bowling as they did. Maybe it’s the IPL or how much IPL cricket they’re playing that the younger players are learning the game that way rather than the way that players did 15 or 20 years ago,” Ponting said.
Interestingly, India’s problems against spin also reared its head in the ODI series loss in Sri Lanka earlier this year where in the three matches in Colombo, they ended up losing 27 off their 30 wickets to spinners. India’s proficiency against spinners has been an issue for a while, especially in Tests, but has spilled into the white-ball formats as well.