India vs Afghanistan: Why Afghanistan spinners performed below expectations

The Indo-Afghan test match was a historic occasion as the Afghanistan team were playing their first match in the history. The Afghanistan players, especially Mujeeb ur Rahman and Rashid Khan had a shown lot of promise in the IPL. It was quite a disappointing match for Afghanistan as they lost in 2 days by an innings and 262 runs.

Their batting performance was dismal. But, what upset the fans was their widely known spin-bowling failed to live up to the expectations. The game was played on a pitch which didn't offer much turn to the spinners and they kept on bowling all over the pitch.

Further, their problems were aggravated by the Indian batsmen who came down the track and made them bowl under tremendous pressure. The silver lining for the Afghanistan team was that their pacers Wafadar and Ahmadzai bowled extremely tight and restricted India to 474 in the first innings.

Let us have a look at why the Afghanistan spinners performed below expectations.

3 Inconsistent line and length

The Afghanistan spinners were quite disappointing in this test match. Being highly rated, they gave a below-par performance in front of the Bengaluru crowd. They didn't allow themselves to settle into a rhythm, kept on bowling half-trackers and full tosses and were quite easy for the Indian batsmen to dominate.

Shikhar Dhawan countered Nabi by using his feet and hit him straight down the ground. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, on the other hand, was effectively countered by Vijay who is one of the best sweepers in the Indian team. Being still in IPL mode, Mujeeb's inconsistent line and length prevented his variations from troubling the Indian batsmen.

The bowling figures of 2/154 of Rashid Khan, 1/65 of Nabi and 1/75 of Mujeeb, let Afghanistan fast-bowlers down.

#2 Improper field placement

The field placements by the Afghan skipper Stanikzai for his spinners was very poor. Very little protection in the deep was given to the spinners. Vijay and Dhawan were able to easily clear the in-field.

This made the bowlers ball the line which the batsmen wanted and in this process, Vijay and Dhawan negated Afghanistan's main weapon. When Rashid Khan was bowling the leg-stump line to the right-handers, he was not provided with a mid-wicket and hence the batsmen would just flick the ball to the boundary. Also for Dhawan, there was no fielder on the boundary on the off-side for the spinners.

Stanikzai should introspect on his performance and not repeat the same error in the next match. Bowlers should also not be bystanders and tell the captain which field they want. They should also clearly tell him which line and length they wish to bowl to the batsmen.

#1 Failure of star spinner

Rashid Khan was supposed to be the man to watch out for in the test match. Unfortunately, he failed to show his talent in this match. From ball one, Dhawan dominated him and didn't allow him to settle.

Further, he couldn't grip the SG ball perfectly and hence ended up giving full tosses and loose deliveries outside the off-stump for Shikhar Dhawan to put away. Rashid Khan was clearly unable to replicate his form in the IPL into this test match.

Having taken 2 wickets and giving away 154 runs at an economy rate of 4.4, Rashid Khan's performance was below par which was least expected from a bowler of his calibre.

He will be expected to come back stronger and not repeat the same mistakes in the next series against Ireland in August.