Lions no more, India’s Test team appear vulnerable on home soil

NEW DELHI: The thought of playing a Test series in India once struck fear into the hearts of touring sides, but with their fortress now breached twice in the last 12 months local cricket fans know the team’s aura of invincibility on home soil has been shattered.

India did not lose a home Test series for 12 years until New Zealand whitewashed them 3-0 late last year, and while the reverberations from that stunning defeat had grown faint, South Africa’s 2-0 victory has delivered another almighty shock to home fans.

“There was an aura around the Indian team when playing in India. You can see it disappearing in the distance,” commentator Harsha Bhogle wrote on X after India suffered their heaviest defeat in terms of runs in the second Test on Wednesday.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir was even booed in Guwahati after overseeing India’s fifth defeat in their last seven home Tests.

“Once lions at home, now lambs to the slaughter,” read a headline in the Indian Express newspaper.

For a generation India had remained, in former Australia captain Steve Waugh’s words, the “final frontier”, where home spinners routinely dismantled touring teams on turning tracks.

“Teams used to be scared to come to India to play Test cricket,” player-turned-commentator Dinesh Karthik said on social media.

“Now they must be licking their lips. “These are tough times for India in test cricket and tough decisions might have to be taken.”

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India appear to be going through a tough transition phase in the wake of batting stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin ending their Test careers.

One of India’s biggest concerns is how spin is being used as a weapon against them instead of a weakness for them to exploit in other teams.

The once familiar sight of nimble-footed, whippy-wristed Indian batters dominating spin looks a distant memory, replaced by the horror of watching South Africa off-spinner Simon Harmer wreak havoc by taking 17 wickets over the two Tests.

The 201 runs India managed in Guwahati was their highest innings total in the series, and only two local batters - Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravindra Jadeja - managed a fifty in their four innings.

India played four spinners in the first Test and three in the second but were unable to unsettle the South Africa batters, who had both the plan and the skill to master turn.

However, captain Shubman Gill, who missed the second Test after suffering a neck injury in the opener, said India would be stronger for the setbacks.

“Calm seas don’t teach you how to steer, it’s the storm that forges steady hands,” he wrote on social media.

“We’ll continue to believe in each other, fight for each other, and move forward - rising stronger.”