For someone who is being looked at as Ravindra Jadeja’s eventual replacement, Suthar’s success bodes well for India.

Manav Suthar cleaned up the tail in a flash! ⚡

Three wickets in one over to put the finishing touches on a sensational bowling effort.

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“They (team) had put their trust in him. If he didn’t get wickets, then questions would be raised. We knew he didn’t have many wickets (domestic cricket) to show. But what we did together was to ensure he was ready to play in any condition. Our target was when an opportunity comes, make the most out of it. And for that we had been busy since the off-season,” Dheeraj said.

For a spinner who predominantly delivered the ball with the seam facing the first slip, there were concerns if batsmen would be able to pick him from the hand easily. Over the course of this Test, Suthar showed he had a bag of tricks. At times, he delivered with the seam facing the square and more importantly showed he can deliver an arm ball. It is a delivery he has been working a lot. A left-spinner with a straighter one makes life hard for batsmen. “Personally, I was so happy with the three wickets which came off the straighter one. Because, we have been working on it for a while,” Dheeraj said.

Since Rahul Dravid’s tenure as coach, Suthar has been on the radar of the selectors and the team management. But playing for Rajasthan, a team that hasn’t been in the top bracket of Ranji Trophy, Suthar didn’t have compelling numbers. However, he repeatedly made Duleep Trophy and India A squads. At different times, different selectors have taken note of his ability to be effective on green tops, slow decks, raging turners and flat pitches. Gautam Gambhir & Co. put their faith in him.

There is Harsh Dubey, another left-arm spinner, with a possible big future. Dubey knocked on the doors with a bucketful of wickets for Vidarbha. However, selectors and the team management don’t go by numbers alone. So when they picked Suthar, they had a plan of India having a settled spin combo by the time of the next Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home early next year. Against Afghanistan, Suthar showed glimpses of his talent. And at Galle, he outshined not just his teammates Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, but also the main home spinner Prabath Jayasuriya. Suthar has everything that makes him a classical, old-school spinner, but inexperience couldn’t be overlooked.

“With the wicket being on the slower side, we just discussed about finding that one spot from where you can keep attacking. And given his hip movement and the balance, we knew that if we kept bowling on the full length, he has more chance of succeeding because he was getting more turn than the rest and he extracts bounce with his high-arm release,” Dheeraj said.

Arm speed

KL Rahul, who got to witness it all from the first slip, had a good idea of what a batsman was up against. “It’s the subtle variations. The same actions, the same angles. Without changing his arm speed, he’s able to bowl slower, and with the same arm speed, he’s able to bowl quicker as well. Sometimes the angles, especially in the air, when the wind was blowing from one side, he used that drift really well here in Galle, and from there the ball straightens or comes in. Just using subtle variations, he’s able to do that through the day.”