Suthar brilliant on debut as India take control against Afghanistan

Debutant Manav Suthar’s classical left-arm spin bowling was a beacon of hope for a bright future as his three wickets gave India complete control on the second day of their one-off Test against Afghanistan here on Sunday.

With mercury soaring, India declared their first innings at 564 for 8 once Washington Sundar scored a pressure-free half-century while adding 54 useful runs with Suthar (28 off 41 balls).

At stumps, Afghanistan were tottering at 113 for 5 with Suthar recording figures of 3 for 21 in 15.5 overs.

Prasidh Krishna (2/27 in 7 overs) was the other wicket-taker. Hosts, now, are ahead by 451 runs.

Having warmed up nicely with a short yet sweet maiden Test knock, Suthar got into the act straightaway after being summoned to bowl the last over before tea. He removed opener Abdul Malik, who wanted to sweep his way out of trouble after looking clueless facing first three deliveries.

A classical action and the old school diagonal run-up of bowling to right-handers while cutting between the umpire and stumps, the 23-year-old from Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar was a delight to watch.

In times when spin bowling is increasingly starting to become more of a restrictive weapon, thanks to the mushrooming T20 leagues, Suthar brought a lot of freshness while sticking to basics -- flight and turn.

Suthar has a high release point and his main attributes included putting multiple revs (revolutions) on the ball. He could hang the ball for an extra second in the air and also get some drift before it turns away from the right-hand batters.

The 23-year-old has a repetitive action and the pitch map on TV showed that he could land the ball on the same spot and make it do three different things.

A few would turn more, a few would go straight with extra bounce forcing batters to go on back-foot, and a few others were classic arm balls that come in with the angle.

The wicket of the Afghanistan opener was one which he bowled straight and the ball bounced a tad extra making Malik’s sweep look like an ugly hoick.

In the case of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, a former KKR opening batter, he simply didn’t allow him to come on the front-foot.

He bowled a few that went straight and Gurbaz defended. Then from the same spot, he bowled one that dipped late and then turned away, kissing the edge of Gurbaz’s willow into Sai Sudharsan’s hands in the second slip.

Suthar’s third and final wicket of the day came when the ball stopped and bounced with Afsar Zazai closing the face of the bat and the loopy leading edge resulted in an easy return catch.

Skipper Shubman Gill, very rightly allowed him to bowl unchanged for 13 overs from one end while shuffling between Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh and Kuldeep Yadav at the other end.

If Suthar’s impressive initiation into Test arena is any indication, Indian selectors can hope for a smooth transition as and when Ravindra Jadeja is phased out from the red-ball format.

Earlier, Rishabh Pant answered his critics in the best possible manner with a stroke-filled 81 while Afghanistan pacer Mohammad Saleem enjoyed the fruits of labour in punishing weather with figures of 6 for 140. In-front of a sparse Sunday crowd, Pant did play his signature strokes but also curbed his natural instinct to go after each delivery, treating each ball on its merit during his 121-ball knock that had six boundaries and three sixes. He should have completed his century but off-spinner Hashmatullah Shahidi slowed the pace considerably.  Pant charged down the track but couldn’t fully reach to the pitch of the delivery as the lofted hit ballooned up for a simple catch for Azmatullah Omarzai. For Afghanistan, their IPL star Omarzai was distinctly unlucky. He was impressive with the second new ball, beating the bat on a number of occasions without much luck. In fact, Pant, like KL Rahul did on Day 1, also edged one but no one from the Afghanistan team appealed for caught behind.