All-rounder Manav Suthar gives India hope with guile, dip, spin, control and perfect ‘tappa’

Tech Word News. com in Mullanpur: “Kya kamaal gend nikalti hai iske haath se” (There is magic in his hands every time the ball leaves them). This is the unanimous observation about Manav Suthar from anyone who has seen him up close, be it teammates, coaches, selectors or even India’s current Test captain Shubman Gill.“In one of the U-23 matches, one of the fielders nearby told me that you can hear the sound of spin when he bowls. He puts so much spin on the ball, which is quite unreal in today’s cricket,” Anshu Jain, the current head coach of Rajasthan, under whom Suthar played at the U-19 and U-23 levels, told TimesofIndia. com after the left-arm spinner took six wickets on debut. “That’s natural. He’s also unique. No current cricketer will tell you that he wants to play Test cricket for India and that the IPL is not his ultimate goal. He told me that when he was still a teenager. It’s remarkable,” adds Jain.The 23-year-old, who got the nod ahead of Harsh Dubey for the one-off Test against Afghanistan, became only the tenth Indian bowler and seventh Indian spinner to take five wickets on Test debut.When Gujarat Titans roped in Suthar in 2024, he impressed everyone with his bowling. One who was particularly impressed by his craft was Captain Shubman Gill. Although the Rajasthan spinner has only played a handful of matches for the Titans, he has been told to be ready for a call-up to the Indian team.Several sources following Suthar’s development claimed that he was tipped to make his Test debut against the West Indies last year at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The selectors and team management wanted to play him ahead of Ravindra Jadeja, but the veteran all-rounder earned a lifeline after scoring 516 runs in England.“Suthar is someone who will give you wickets even on flat tracks. He has so much skill that he doesn’t need much from the surface. Accuracy, spin, right pace – all that makes him very sharp. The selectors were very excited to try him and the talks around him started during the England tour. He was close to a first West Indies call-up and his next home Test bat in England,” he explains. resource tracking development. After India lost the home series against South Africa, the team management decided against fielding rampaging spinners. They wanted to play on traditional subcontinental tracks and for that they needed skills in the spin department.Over two days of bowling in the sweltering heat at Mullanpur, Suthar showed why so many consider him special. Be it his diagonal run, the way he leans over the umpire, the guile, the drift, the dip, the flight, the spin and most importantly the length he hits – all indicated that India might have found a reliable spinner. At least in domestic conditions where they want to play on sports pitches where the ball starts rolling from Day 3 rather than matches ending in nine sessions. And then the perfect “tappa”.Suthar is not just a one-trick pony. He mixes the pace extremely well. His average speed was 89.90 km/h, his faster deliveries were close to 95 km/h and the slower ones hovered in the mid-80s, all while maintaining an impeccable length. He bowled 72 balls at a good length which accounted for 55 per cent of the balls he bowled. Another 40 percent were occupied. Out of the 132 deliveries he bowled, he barely gave an inch to the Afghan batsmen, which explains his paltry figures of 22-10-33-6.And hitting the spot is something he learned from his father, Jagdeesh Suthar, a physical education teacher at a private school in Sri Ganganagar.“I was an off-spinner myself and when he used to have lessons with the tennis ball, I told him that if he wants to become a good spinner, he has to bite the same spot again and again,” Jagdeesh told this website at the stadium after handing over his son’s Kuldeep Yadav debut cap.Suthar spoke at length to broadcasters about “point bowling” at the end of Saturday’s game.“My only focus was how consistently I could mix in one place,” he said.When asked about his skills and how he developed such consistency, he replied, “Jab maine khelna shuru kiya, subah se lekar shaam tak bas main spot bowling karta tha” (When I started, I focused heavily on spot bowling. If possible, I practiced spot bowling in the morning and evening).Suthar first caught everyone’s attention after a stellar domestic season in 2022-23, during which he collected 90 goals in the year. He was Rajasthan’s leading wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy with 39 wickets in six matches. Before that, he took 14 wickets in seven U-25 one-dayers before picking up 37 wickets in the CK Nayudu Trophy.“After Rajasthan failed to qualify for the knockouts, he called me and asked, ‘Sir, U-25 khel sakta hun? Thoda red-ball se aur overs ho jayenge’ (Can I come and play U-25 cricket to get more overs under my belt with the red ball?),” recalls Anshu.

Should Suthar be preferred over veterans like Ravindra Jadeja?

But his exploits went unnoticed and no IPL franchise picked him. A disappointed Suthar called his childhood coach Dheeraj Sharma and said, “Sir, kya fayada itne wickets lene ka?” (What’s the point of taking so many wickets?)Sharma admonished his charge and asked him sternly whether his aim was to play in the IPL or for India. The answer came in the gentlest of tones, “Sir, India.”After that, Suthar was selected by Gujarat Titans as a net bowler and as they say, the rest is history.The sample size is still small and the opposition relatively weak, but Suthar is certainly a breath of fresh air in India’s attempt to rebuild a domestic fortress that has been battered in recent years.