How have Indian spinners fared compared to England's in first two Tests

It’s even-steven in the India-England Test series with the scores levelled at 1-1 after the first two Tests. England stunned India by 28 runs at Hyderabad in the first Test to take a 1-0 lead before Rohit Sharma and Co bounced back with a 106-run victory at Visakhapatnam. The next Test starts on 15 February at Rajkot.

Despite the closely contest Test matches, there’s one area where England have been downright winners and it’s the battle between the spin departments.

Yes, it’s a shock to write such, but England spinners have outperformed Indian spinners so far in the series. And there can be no better way to explain this than put them in numbers.

In the two matches so far, England spinners have taken 33 wickets at an average of 33.90. In comparison, Indian spinners, including heavyweights Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, have taken 23 wicket at 38.39.

The average of 38.39 is the worst for Indian spinners since the last Test series defeat at home, which came against England in 2012.

There’s more shocking stats to cover.

England spinners have had an economy rate of 3.48 as compared to India’s 4.18.

Essentially, less wickets and poor economy rate have emerged as the biggest issue for Indian spinners in comparison to England tweakers, but it’s baffling, purely because they are more experienced.

Ashwin alone has 499 wickets to his name from 97 matches and Jadeja, who missed second Test due to hamstring injury, has 280 scalps from 69 Tests. Axar Patel has picked 55 wickets in 14 matches, while Kuldeep Yadav has 38 wickets from nine Tests.

Jack Leach is England’s most experienced spinner with 126 wickets from 36 matches but he missed the Visakhapatnam game due to an injury, while Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir had only Test among themselves before the start of the series. Both Hartley and Bashir made Test debut in the ongoing series, with the former taking eight wickets at Hyderabad in his first game.

Joe Root is a part-time bowler.

The numbers make the full story crystal clear. Indian spinners have been below par which is one of the biggest reasons for the home team not being able to put up a fight that was expected from them. For them to now stitch together a streak of wins, the spinners will have to come good sooner rather than later.