Indian spinners buckled under pressure of expectations: Raman

"I think the extra pressure is on the batsmen to perform because unless there are runs on the board you can't do anything even if 4-5 spinners are playing in the eleven.

You need to put up runs on the board which we did not do," Raman maintained.

He advised the Indian spinners to exercise a lot of patience and focus on bowling well and not taking wickets.

"It's about knowing what to do and having patience. A bowler like (Srinivas) Venkataraghavan would ensure that he would never give anything loose to the batsman and let the pitch take care of the turn. As a bowler you need to have the mind of a miser. Prassy (Erapally Prasanna) will always say 'I would recommend the bowler to bowl well and not to get wickets..' in short don't be all over the place.

"Bowling on a helpful track is not easy because contrary to what people believe, the batsman has a lot of angles to work the ball around when you err in line or length even by a small margin. On a good track even if the bowler is short he can get away but on a turner the batsman can go back to cut or pull or what not. Also, there is very little chance of a leg before because of the turn," he remarked.

"We also have to see the context in which the teams played. If you look back (on the Mumbai Test) Harbhajan (Singh) was making a comeback after a long time. He is definitely not coming back with a flattering record in the four-day game. He has come back because he has a lot of experience and the feeling he can contribute a lot.

"Ashwin is just a year old and he will find more challenges as he goes along. International cricket is not easy, that's one thing he will find out. (Pragyan) Ojha, you can say, in a way has an identity crisis. You can't put a finger on him and say he's the lead spinner," Raman said.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Fit-again Zaheer Khan wants to reclaim India spot

Stuart Broad bowls England to big win at Lord's

Spot-fixing: Chandila was in touch with four sets of bookies, says Delhi Police

David Warner to face disciplinary hearing over Twitter burst