Kapil Dev Blasts Indian Players For Skipping Domestic Cricket: ‘Who Even Does It Anymore?’

Test cricket in India is at its lowest point in decades as earlier this week, the team suffered yet another whitewash at home, this time at the hands of South Africa, to make it two whitewashes in as many years. What added to the embarrassment was the fact that in Guwahati, the team suffered its heaviest ever defeat, losing the game by an eye-watering 408 runs.

It means that India have now lost five of their last seven home Tests, and since mid-2024 have only won series against Bangladesh and West Indies in red-ball cricket.

Batting has been at the forefront of the team’s failures, and former India captain Kapil Dev reckoned that lack of domestic cricket is seriously starting to affect the team’s batters.

“I just want to know how many of today’s top players are playing domestic cricket. That’s the most crucial thing. If you don’t play domestic cricket and don’t face quality bowlers, you are going to struggle," Kapil told Sportstar.

“I was surprised that India lost to New Zealand and South Africa at home, but we should have prepared better. Test cricket is different. You ask a person like me to defend, it will not work. But you ask someone like Ravi Shastri to bat the whole day, he will do it. Jimmy Amarnath and Sunil Gavaskar could stay in the middle for the entire day. They had the temperament because they played a lot of domestic cricket."

The former India captain was critical of the application being shown by the Indian batters, and asserted that white-ball cricket has fully contaminated the Indian batters’ temperament in Tests.

“We are more occupied with T20s and ODIs, which means the batters hardly encounter bowler-friendly pitches,” he said.

“On surfaces offering a lot of help to spin and seam, you need patience and a different set of skills to thrive. Once you are ready to play on those pitches, your mindset affects how you tackle them. You do not have batters like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, who knew how to stay at the wicket. Batting in Tests is about staying in the middle.

“You need better skills to tackle spin than to play pace, but it depends on the state of the pitch. If the turn or bounce is vicious, it becomes very difficult. Remember, footwork plays an important role," he added.

At the same time, the former India captain was also critical of pitches that bring Test matches to a premature halt. Notably, the first Test in Kolkata lasted only 2.5 days.

“The pitches are very, very important. Not the type where the game ends in two and a half days. You lose the toss and lose the game. What is the point of having a pitch where no team crosses 200? It is not good for the state of the five-day game,” he said.