SA vs IND, 2018: Sunil Gavaskar has an interesting idea to end Proteas' spin woes

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has offered South Africa an interesting solution to end their spin-playing woes. South Africa have looked absolutely clueless against India’s spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav in the ongoing One-day International series (ODI).

The Proteas have lost all the three matches in the series so far and are now in danger of losing first ever bilateral series against India at home.

India’s wrist-spinners have been one of the biggest reasons behind their dismal performance.  So far, the spinners have taken 21 of the 30 South African wickets that have fallen in the series.

Chahal has picked up 11 wickets while Kuldeep has bagged 10 wickets. As a result, the hosts have been thoroughly outplayed in all the first three games.

In the first ODI, the Proteas scored 269 for 8. However, in the second game, they managed to put up the paltry total of 118.

Their performance did not improve in the third ODI too as they were bundled out for just 179 while chasing 304.

A piece of advice for Proteas from Sunil Gavaskar

And with the batsmen looking clueless on how to deal with the spinners, Gavaskar has come up with an interesting idea. Gavaskar feels South Africa will be well served if they send their ‘A’ team to play the Buchi Babu All-India invitational tournament, held annually in Chennai.

The batting legend feels the exposure of playing against spinners from India ‘A’ team and even junior teams will help the African country overcome their recent struggles against the turning ball.

“A lot of South African batsmen have paid the price for playing across the line. Not too many batsmen have tried to go down the pitch. Look, when you watch the hand, they [Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal] are not very difficult to pick. Maybe Kuldeep Yadav, when he bowls the wrong one, he is a little difficult to pick. But with Chahal, you can actually see the back of the hand,” Gavaskar said.

“So, what they need to really do in my view is their A team needs to come and play in the Buchi Babu and stay at the spin academy in Chennai and participate. Over there, they will get a much better idea of how to play spin. Even if they are playing against the A’ team or some of the Indian junior team spinners, they will learn how to play spin like how Australia and New Zealand have done,” he added.

Not the first time for foreign teams in the tournament:

In case, South Africa sends their team to India, it will not be the first time of an international team playing in the Buchi Babu tournament. The likes of New Zealand A [2009, 2001] and Australia XI [2007] have been part of the Buchi Babu tournaments, which became an important part of the domestic calendar after it became an invitational tournament in the late 1960s.

Teams from across the country warm up for the domestic season by playing the tournament on dry wickets in Chennai which offers ample support to spinners.

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