After five humiliating defeats, Shubman Gill et al. to the moat of raging turners at home

India captain Shubman Gill (left) and head coach Gautam Gambhir during a training session. (PTI) NEW DELHI: Over the past 18 months, India’s home stronghold in Test cricket has not only been breached, but ransacked with utter defiance by the New Zealand and South African spinners. India were whitewashed 0-3 by New Zealand in 2024 and suffered a 0-2 loss against South Africa a year later. Defeats in these five Tests have left India languishing at No. 6 in the World Test Championship (WTC) rankings, with their hopes of qualifying for the final hanging in the balance.One of the biggest lessons from these defeats is that the Indian team management is likely to step back from preparing the rampaging spinners, TimesofIndia.com can confirm. If the 0-3 defeat to New Zealand was an eye-opener, the 0-2 loss to South Africa forced the management to opt for surfaces that offer gradual wear and tear. There has already been a lot of discussion about this and it also played a role in the selection of venues for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in 2027.The Indian team is not averse to turning tracks, but prefers surfaces that offer gradual wear to red-soil surfaces that provide sharp turns, variable bounce and deteriorate from day one – something seen during the Eden Gardens Test against South Africa, which ended in three days. Black earth, mixed ground and traditional Indian pitches will be the way forward as the think tank wants the team to have the best possible chance. The Indian batsmen’s inability to play quality spin on the turning tracks also played a role.

Mullanpur, Nagpur, Chennai, Guwahati, Ranchi and Ahmedabad are the venues for the next six home Tests and have been carefully selected with pitch, ground and conditions in mind.

Source BCCI

“Mullanpur, Nagpur, Chennai, Guwahati, Ranchi and Ahmedabad are the venues for India’s next six home Tests and have been carefully selected with pitch, ground and conditions in mind. Most of these venues offer red, black and mixed ground variants, but all of them can produce tracks that last five days. Our batting and early starts did not look broadcast-friendly,” a source following the development told TimesofIndia.com.The first of the six home Tests will be a one-off against Afghanistan in Mullanpur from June 6 and is expected to have a traditional subcontinental flavour. The mercury will rise sharply in this area, so a lot of emphasis will be placed on preparing a surface that holds together under the unforgiving sun. The curator explained why black soil has to be the way forward given what the current team management wants.

The nature of red soil is such that it breaks sooner rather than later. So black soil is your best bet for gradual wear. Again, if you try to change the pitch closer to the match, it will always come back, so it’s better to have the messages sorted well in advance.

BCCI Curator

“Mullanpur also has a red ground option if I’m not mistaken, but in this temperature it won’t be a wise move to play on a red ground. The black ground has to be an ideal option not only for the Afghanistan match but also for the home series with Australia. Guwahati has a mixed pitch, Chennai has a mixed pitch, Ranchi and Nagpur have produced good options for you to choose from in the last few matches.”“The nature of red soil is that it will break sooner rather than later. So black soil is the best bet for gradual wear. Again, if you try to change the pitch closer to the match, it always reverses, so it’s better to have the news sorted well in advance,” explained the seasoned curator.

Which type of pitch do you think will benefit the Indian batsmen more?

India took a similar approach during the home Tests against the West Indies, but opted to revert to turners for the Tests in South Africa. The move backfired, resulting in another Test series defeat at home. Men who care don’t want a repeat of awkward twins, and sports fields are the first step in that direction.