What makes India almost invincible at home in Test cricket? 

For the last six to seven years, India has been a force to be reckoned with in Test cricket. They have made huge strides in the longest format of the game, beating Australia twice in Australia, drawing a Test series in England, and posing a real threat to South Africa in their home conditions. As impressive as they have been abroad, the team's Test record at home deserves special attention, which is a testament to the fact that the team operates at a whole other level when playing at home.

No country among the top cricket-playing nations wears a cloak of home dominance with more authority than the Men in Blue. The majority of teams are defeated mentally before they even reach Indian shores because they are afraid of being tested by spin, which they are ill-prepared to handle. However, it would be a terrible injustice to credit India’s exceptional run of triumphs solely on spin and ignore other contributing causes.

Let's look at some of the decisive factors that play an instrumental role in India's dominance at home.

Foreign batsmen lack the application and skill to play on Indian pitches

The teams that have traveled to India have left no stone unturned in their preparations. Australia, South Africa, and even England are known for their meticulous planning leading up to a tour.

They have tried different methodologies to counter the spin factor, such as inviting local spinners to bowl to their batsmen on pitches with artificially created roughs. They also appoint spin consultants to guide them on the best methods to play spin.

But despite their best efforts, they tend to struggle against the Indian spinners. Ironically, it's not the big-spinning deliveries that do the most damage. Rather, it's the ones that don't turn that much or hold their line.

You will find that there's a huge difference in the quality of the local spinners and India's premier ones. Also, having been born and brought up with pace and bounce on their home pitches, facing a spinner in the first over of a match is often a daunting task.

The uncertainty about whether to play on the front or back foot often leads to the introduction of the sweep and reverse sweep, inducing false shots and creating chances for the bowler.

Use of SG balls in India

The SG balls used in India are a significant yet somewhat underrated factor in the domination of the hosts.

Much of the cricketing world prefers the Kookaburra or Duke balls, which might lose their seam over time but maintain their basic shape due to a highly compressed core.

So, when bowlers from other countries have to bowl with SG balls, they find the "bloating" of the ball to be an enormous challenge.

The cricket ball experiences significantly more wear and tear on hard, abrasive Indian pitches than it does in other countries. The pitch often breaks up on the first or second day, and the spinners enter the game by taking advantage of the cracks.

Hence, it is thought that the hand-stitched SG ball will survive better and longer on these pitches. However, an SG ball tends to lose its seam in about 50 or 60 overs, making it extremely difficult for visiting bowlers in this period.

Indian lower-order contributions

India has traditionally struggled to produce quality fast-bowling all-rounders, something the likes of Australia, England, and South Africa have been blessed with. But in India, you don't need fast-bowling all-rounders; what you do need are spinners who can bat, and in that department, the Asian giants have been blessed with an arsenal of spinners who can chip in with handy runs.

With 13 fifty-plus partnerships for the seventh wicket or lower at home since 2021 (five of them century partnerships), India is far ahead of England and Pakistan, who are tied for second with eight each.

They owe Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Axar Patel a huge amount of credit for their dominance at home. Jadeja has been batting at No. 6 in subcontinent conditions in recent times, where he has an average of 41.97 after 51 innings. Ashwin has rediscovered his batting form after a period of decline where he averaged less than 15 in 2019-20, and his average has risen to more than 25 since 2021. Axar Patel, too, has been consistent with the bat, scoring 355 runs at an average of 35.50, including three half-centuries.

Indian pacers are equal partners in crime at home

The partnership between Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri may not have yielded any ICC trophies, but it did make a significant contribution to Indian cricket. Under their leadership, India cultivated a weapon that only a few years ago seemed like an impossibility. Whether at home or overseas, this "weapon" gives the Asian giants the upper hand.

The weapon is pace bowling.

In terms of bowling averages, Indian spinners have been far ahead of every other Test-playing nation in the last few years, though their pacers are not far behind.

The differential between pacers' (25.37) and spinners' (21.68) bowling averages at home has been the smallest for India since 2013 at 3.69.

In particular, Mohammed Shami (averaging 15.04) and Umesh Yadav (averaging 15.27) have been relentless at home, keeping the ball in the channel and frequently hitting the stumps, thus bringing all modes of dismissal into play.

If you're wondering whether the Indians have been lucky with tosses, you will be surprised to learn that they have lost significantly more tosses at home than they have won, comprehensively busting the "win-toss, win-match" myth.

The Indians have played 44 Test matches since 2013, decimating their opponents 36 times, losing only two and drawing the other six.

Taking all these factors into account, it looks highly likely that India will continue its dominance at home for the foreseeable future.