India next play a Test in August 2026 on their tour of Sri Lanka. But before that series and the home Tests against Australia late in the 2026-27 season, India need to try and figure out how they can be better in terms of technique when tackling spin.

And for that, they even need to take the advice of their “seniors”, captain KL Rahul emphasised.

Such words from Rahul came in the wake of India’s 0-2 drubbing against South Africa, their second at home in the space of a year.

“I don’t know why we were better in playing spin before and not so good now. There are a lot of reasons, but we can just think about how we can do better as players,” Rahul, asked about India’s frailties against spin in recent times, said on Saturday, the eve of the first ODI against South Africa in Ranchi.

“Individually, how we can do better and when in six-seven months we are in a similar situation against Sri Lanka and the home series against Australia, how we can do better and what are the technical changes we need to make. These are things we’ll individually seek answers for.

“And, we used to play spin very well before, so we’ll reach out to those players and try to learn something from our seniors.”

Rahul didn’t elaborate on who these seniors were. But with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli returning to the side for the three ODIs, Rahul acknowledged that the duo’s influence was crucial in a dressing room looking to regain momentum after the Test series debacle.

“Their importance at any point is huge. To have senior players in the team obviously makes the dressing room feel a lot more confident. Having their presence and experience helps out a lot of players and helps out the team,” Rahul stressed.

“Winning is the most important thing. So, that is what we are trying to focus on. We’re trying to forget what happened a week ago and focusing on the game tomorrow (Sunday) and see how we can put in a collective performance,” he added.