We thought wicket would deteriorate but it just got slower: Ten Doeschate

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI) Indian spinners will have a tough fourth day in office with the pitch getting slower, thereby making batting way easier, admitted assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate after the end of third day's play in the third Test against the West Indies here on Sunday. After enforcing follow-on, West Indies batters John Campbell and Shai Hope negotiated the Indian spinners with ease helping themselves to half-centuries. "We thought the wicket was going to keep deteriorating and by close of play it would be at its worst. It just seems to have slowed down even more. It's quite challenging to get any pace up," Ten Doeschate said at the end of the day's play.

In fact, he corroborated what Ravindra Jadeja had said at the end of second day that spinners will have to use more shoulder to get bounce and zip off the surface.

However Ten Doeschate feels that it is double edged sword which can at times prove to be counter-productive. "Like I said, you have to really fire the ball in. Of course, when you fire the ball in, it's got less chance of spinning. So, we have had a tricky afternoon," the Dutchman said.

"Obviously, monitoring speed is probably the one thing you can play with. You saw every time Washy (Washington) bowled a little bit slower, you get a little bit more turn. Obviously, the batter has a bit more time. So, it's striking the batter and using the changes in pace to get a mistake out of the batter," he tried to explain what is doable in this kind of a situation.

Ten Doeschate was all praise for left-handed batter Campbell, who swept with a lot of ferocity en route his unbeaten 87.

"It's just got to be super patient. Obviously, Campbell has swept very well. So, it's another thing tactically we can look at. Sometimes we expect a lot from our bowlers and sometimes the wickets are a bit unresponsive." Despite Kuldeep Yadav picking up five in the first innings, it was Ravindra Jadeja, who shared the new ball along with Mohammed Siraj in the second innings.

Asked to explain the rationale behind such a decision, he replied, "Yeah, I'll be honest. The thinking there was the hardness of the ball. So we felt Kuldeep still extracted some spin towards the back end of the first innings.

"We just felt one of the finger spinners going with the new ball maybe it would just grip a little bit more. So we sacrificed the mystery part of it for someone who is hopefully going to get a bit more bite out of the pitch with the finger spin. And that was the thinking that worked out." Ten Doeschate said there was toss up between Sundar and Jadeja for the new ball. "There was a deliberation with whether Washi or Jaddu would take the new ball. Obviously one of the seamers bowling from the other end. And Shubman obviously decided to go with Jaddu," he said.

While Kuldeep has still gone wicketless in second innings so far, Ten Doeschate felt that had a few umpires' call against both Campbell and Hope gone their way, things would have been different.

"I think, obviously, the difference with Kuldeep is he's a mystery spinner and he's not the easiest to pick. So, I think that buys him a little bit more. He has an element of danger compared to the finger spinners. "But, also, I don't think we're a million miles off this afternoon, not to point things at our pipe at all," he said.

"But, there are three very close decisions there. If you can even two of those, it's a much better day for us. But, yeah, Kuldeep put the ball in the right area and spun it both ways." Ten Doeschate felt that the margin in terms of lines bowled and lengths hit by Kuldeep between first and second innings was minimal.

"You can see how small the margins are and how he got the wickets in the first innings. It's just play and miss compared to getting an edge and not getting wickets. But, I certainly think the fact that a lot of these guys wouldn't have faced more of him, but still, you know, that mystery element makes him a little bit more effective than the other two." Jurel's batting is big positive from the series ================================ In the absence of an injured Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel did exceptionally well both in-front of and behind the stumps. With a century and 44 in this Test, Jurel has been a big positive to have emerged for India in this series.

"I think the first name that springs into mind is Dhruv. We always knew that he's a quality player. Obviously, the 100 in the first Test and also the way he went about it yesterday.

"You know, no qualms about trying to push on. He could have got a not out there. He was on 44. The message went out. We're going to try to clear it pretty soon. And it takes him on and gets out straight away," Ten Doeschate said.

"So, in terms of the culture, how we want guys to play, you know, playing for the team first, we've been very impressed with what we've seen from him." "Nitish Kumar Reddy getting a little bit of (batting) time in the middle was also important. I think Shubman's captaincy is coming on nicely as well. It's very important for a young captain. It was a very tough trip to England where he excelled. I think he's built on that just in the 10 days he spent together. PTI KHS KHS SSC SSC