It takes time to play wrist spin: Kallis

South Africa's greatest all-rounder Jacques Kallis has figured out why his country's batsmen are struggling against Indian wrist-spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav - the Proteas are not facing bowlers like those in the domestic circuit at all.

India have taken an unassailable 4-1 lead in the six-match series with Chahal (14) and Yadav (16) accounting for 30 wickets between them. "It takes time to read good leg-break bowlers. We have to accept we don't have enough world class leg-spinners in our country. So, this is a learning curve for the youngsters in our team," Kallis said in an interview.

"Even we went through the same phase and we learnt with time," said the man who scored more than 25,000 runs in international cricket.

For someone who faced Shane Warne and Anil Kumble at their prime with fair degree of success, Kallis feels there is no one perfect technique to counter leg-spinners.

"Experience is the key. There are basically two ways to read leg-break bowling. Either you pick up from wrists or wait for the ball to pitch. No two batsmen would employ the same technique," he explained. "As one plays more international cricket, he would know what works best for him. Everyone forms their own mechanism to get out of trouble," he said.

Kallis agreed with former teammate and skipper Graeme Smith that there is a lack of depth in the next batch of South African batsmen. "Probably South Africa must have realised by now that they don't have much depth when senior cricketers (AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis) get injured," he said. "They (CSA) need to look carefully about how they will expose youngsters to international cricket."