India vs England 2016: 5 reasons why the England spinners have been outbowled by their Indian counterparts

After the hammering received in the 4^th Test match in Mumbai, there are many questions raised over the competency of the England spinners. Before we talk about the performance of the spinners, we should wind the clock back to 2012, when Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar comprehensively outbowled the Indian spinners.

Both Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali are not yet finished articles and thus they struggled to identify the pace and length at which to bowl. They were thus not even close to the Indian spinners when it came down to penetration. Thus, Alastair Cook struggled to find control and had to keep turning to his seamers on surfaces which were slightly more conducive to the spinners.

Here in this slideshow, we take a look at 5 reasons why the English spinners have struggled so far in the tour and what they can do to turn around their fortunes in Mumbai.

#1 Not even body used at the time of delivery

On surfaces which were not raging turners the spinners had to use more of their body to extract maximum assistance from the surfaces. Thus, both Moeen and Rashid struggled to derive any help from the pitch because they were merely putting the ball on the surface and not using the body to generate enough fizz.

Compare this to R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and even Jayant Yadav. If we observe their actions closely we will see that the swivel at the point of delivery ensures that the ball comes out which much more menace and hence when it pitches on the surface it breaks away.

#2 Utilisation of the crease and angles

Rashid and company need to be more flexible in their approach

Use of angles as a spinner approaches the crease is paramount when the conditions are not heavily tilted in their favour. And this is one area where the England spinners were miles behind their Indian counterparts.

Ashwin is an astute thinker of the game and thus when he goes about his business in a very studious manner it is no surprise. However, on similar lines Ravindra Jadeja and newcomer Jayant Yadav too resorted to using different angles and positions on the crease to befuddle the batsmen.

Rashid and Moeen were far more stoic in their approach and thus became predictable in their approach and made life easier for the Indian batsmen. They will have to be more flexible in their approach and try out different things to outdo the competent Indian batsmen.

#3 Drift, turn and flight

More revolutions on the ball will mean more drift and turn

The primary reason behind the resurgence of Ravichandran Ashwin has to be his ability to play with the cricket ball. The off-spinner has now mastered the art of drifting the ball in the air and this makes almost every batsmen unsure about the flight and path of the ball. Ask any spinner and they would concede that drift is the vital part of their arsenal.

England spinners do not get drift which is anywhere close to what the Indian spinners manage to achieve, and hence they have looked toothless in the series so far. This has also to do with the fact that they are not entirely confident in flighting the ball and enticing the batsmen into a sense of false security.

Another major reason why they have looked under cooked in the series so far.

#4 One bad ball per over

Not enough pressure is being generated

When the conditions are not stacked in favour of the spinners, they should look to keep down the runs and apply pressure on the batsmen. Very often when the runs are kept dry at both ends the batsmen look to do something to break the shackles and this then gives the bowlers an opportunity to claim their wickets. This is one of the reasons why the partnership of Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin is a deadly one. While Jadeja is accurate and gives nothing away, Ashwin goes for the kill from the other end and ends up claiming wickets.

Applying pressure is so very important especially when the batsmen are set and are looking to be in their zone. This is one area where the England spinners have faltered big time and have allowed the Indian batsmen to wait for the poor ball without going after the bowling.

#5 Not too many attacking fielders

Lack of penetration forces Cook to push the field back

This point is more an extension of the previous points put forward. Owing to lack of control and penetration Alastair Cook has had to push back the field fairly quickly as he did not want his spinners to leak runs. This has made life easier for the batsmen who can then start trusting their defence to keep out the good balls.

During the second innings of the first Test match in Rajkot, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali gave enough glimpses of the fact that if they trust their skill and if the field supports them they can produce few magical balls along the way. However, as the series has proceeded they have not been anywhere close to what they promised and this has forced Cook to resort to defensive fields.