Gautam Gambhir's right-hand man attacks Virat Kohli and other Indian batters over spin troubles

Former Netherlands National Cricket Team all-rounder and the newly-appointed assistant coach of the India National Cricket Team, Ryan ten Doeschate, has openly spoken about the troubles of the Indian batters against the spin-bowling.

Ryan ten Doeschate was able to join the Indian coaching staff on the recommendation of the head coach Gautam Gambhir. Notably, Doeschate and Gambhir played together for KKR between 2011 and 2015 when the latter was the leader of the franchise.

Gambhir also rates the former Netherlands all-rounder highly, and as part of the coaching staff, the duo lifted the 2024 Indian Premier League trophy, helping Kolkata Knight Riders clinch the title after a decade.

In a recent interaction, Doeschate spoke about the unexpected challenge he is facing as the India coach. Ryan ten Doeschate said that he didn't expect that he would need to work on Indian batters' game against spin-bowling as, in the past, they have been the most prolific players of this variety of bowling.

Doeschate opined that the reason behind India's spin woes is the shift in focus of doing well in overseas conditions.

"One of the challenges I wasn't expecting and I kind of overlooked is the playing of spin by Indian batters. We got undone in Sri Lanka," ten Doeschate told TalkSport Cricket.

"The mindset of India has been such that they've been so desperate to do well overseas," Ten Doeschate said. "The focus has moved to doing well in Australia, England [so] that we've kind of let playing spin, which was always a strength of the Indian team, fall back a little bit. That's one thing I'm looking forward to helping with, getting to that position where Indians are the best players of spin in the world again."

Notably, in the recent Sri Lanka ODI series, in which India lost 0-2, the Indian batters, including Virat Kohli, looked clueless against spinners, and only Rohit Sharma was able to take on the bowlers with his attacking game. As many as 27 wickets were lost by India to spinners, which is a record in a three-match ODI series.

I don't think much of what we're going to bring is technical knowledge to these guys - Gautam Gambhir's coaching staff member Ryan ten Doeschate

Ryan ten Doeschate further said that his role in the Indian team will be to make the players mentally ready to tackle certain situations, and he will not offer technical knowledge as players already have that.

"I don't think much of what we're going to bring is technical knowledge to these guys," he said. "It's more about mindsets, situational awareness, how we think they can control certain phases of the game.

"[It's about] throwing ideas out there, de-briefing, and keeping the mental space really good. That's going to be really important."

Ryan Ten Doeschate also expressed his excitement over the upcoming challenging fixtures of India.

"It's exciting and kind of daunting at the same time," he said. "In terms of what we're looking forward to, qualifying for the WTC final [next June is a goal]. There's a great opportunity with 10 Tests left, five in India [over the next couple of months] and then going to Australia [for five more at the end of 2024] is going to be great.

"Then in the medium term there's the Champions Trophy [in February 2025]. With only three ODIs left in the prep phase, it's going to be really challenging to switch between the formats and get the team ready for that, which again is something they're desperate to win."