IND vs AFG: Sriganganagar’s Manav Suthar ends Rajasthan’s 12-year Test drought

JAIPUR: It has been a wait of more than a decade, but the dry spell for the Rajasthan cricket fraternity finally ended on a historic Saturday morning in New Chandigarh. Ever since Pankaj Singh stepped out in the pristine Indian whites, the cricketer from the state has earned the coveted Test cap. After a gap of 12 years, the desert state is back in the Test arena, thanks to Sriganganagar-based young left-arm spinner Manav Suthar.With this monumental feat, 23-year-old Manav joins an elite club and becomes only the fifth cricketer from the state – after the legendary Salim Durani, Hanumant Singh, Parthasarthy Sharma and Pankaj Singh – to represent the state in Test cricket.Long before the national selectors took notice, the foundation of this historic moment was laid in the home trenches. Vineet Saxena, a former Rajasthan player and coach of the senior team in the 2022-23 season, vividly remembers the quiet morning during a Ranji Trophy match that year when he first caught sight of Manav during a competitive match.“He was the guy who got players into defense and into slips,” recalls Saxena.For a seasoned mentor like him, the wickets on the scorecard can sometimes be deceiving, but the technical purity of the dismissal reveals the true ceiling of the bowlers. Saxena points out that what really makes Manav an exceptional left-arm spinner is his ability to outsmart batsmen from the ground up by beating them when he is actively trying to protect their stumps.“So normally when you look at a bowler, the numbers don’t really indicate the way they take wickets. But if a bowler is getting batsmen in his defence, that means the bowler has really good quality,” the former state coach added.It wasn’t just his tactical brilliance that caught the eye, but the incredible physicality of his bowling. Suthar had an innate ability to handle the ball in the air which gave him difficult tricks that became a nightmare for home batsmen.“The second thing I noticed was the spin on the ball he gives, it’s amazing,” says Saxena. “In our slang, we say the ball spins, drifts and bites off the surface. So it has something to do with the spin he’s able to put on the ball. That’s something special about him.”This special quality exploded into reality during the second season of the Manav Ranji Trophy in 2022-23. The young spinner tore through the opposition line-ups, capturing 39 wickets in just six matches at an incredible economy of 2.90, punctuated by two five-wicket hauls and a match-winning ten-wicket haul.However, what makes Suthar the ideal modern cricketer, and why many are already eyeing him as a potential successor to Ravindra Jadeja, is his immense all-round ability. Suthar was never content to be a one-dimensional specialist.“In a match that season, he took five wickets against Pondicherry and narrowly missed out on a century. So that would have been a big, big feat,” observes Saxena. “He can develop into a good all-rounder. And also in batting, from what I observed at the time, he was very keen to learn. So he had that mindset and attitude.”Any young orthodox left-arm spinner who can bat and rack up huge home numbers will naturally draw immediate comparisons with Jadeja. As Manav officially embarks on his Test journey, the hype is palpable, but Saxena insists on a balanced perspective while acknowledging the youngster’s immense talent.“Jadeja is probably one of the biggest all-round machines that India has produced. So I think it will be wrong to compare Manav with him from now on. It’s a long way for Manav to travel to achieve that,” says Saxena.Suthar’s adaptability became even more evident when he translated those red-ball performances into high-stakes white-ball cricket. Saxena recalls how the spinner held his own against some of the most feared and established batsmen in the country, proving that he is a real asset across formats.“He faced a star-studded Mumbai side in the practice matches ahead of the Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Ahmedabad and produced an outstanding performance against Shivam Dube. Despite Dube’s notorious dominance over left-arm spinners, he throttled the all-rounder’s scoring to a level under the run ball and limited him with fear.When the tournament officially began, Manav made his T20 debut as an Impact Player against Madhya Pradesh tasked with keeping Venkatesh Iyer in form.“Iyer is a good hitter of the ball. He scored about 60 off 30 balls in that game. Out of that against Manav, it was just a run-a-ball and Manav bowled him around 8-10 balls. So even against the off-spinners, he was able to contain them.” added.