Indian skipper Shubman Gill was becoming restless. Clouds were gathering fast over Galle stadium, and the Sri Lankans were showing some unexpected fight. To add to India’s worries, the old, worn out Kookaburra ball was doing precious little, and the first Test was slipping fast. Then came that little moment of magic. Manav Suthar, who was into the seventh over of his latest spell, found that extra bounce from the rough around Sonal Dinusha’s leg-stump, and Dhruv Jurel just needed to wrap his palms around the ball at leg slip.
India eventually won the match by 165 runs and Suthar completed a 10-wicket effort. Suthar has played just two Tests but the 24-year-old has already taken some big strides forward in grabbing India’s spin baton from the two past masters.
He’s very respectful around the game,” said Kirsten. Watching Ashwin’s video is among the favourite pastimes of Suthar, according to his father. Here, the BCCI and team bigwigs too deserve a share of the credit for showing the right vision. When India went for a shadow tour of Sri Lanka ahead of the Test series, Suthar was kept in the ‘A’ squad. However, head coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar decided that Suthar will be better off playing County cricket for Warwickshire. The team management didn’t want Sri Lanka to have enough data on Suthar and also English conditions would give him an idea of how to bowl with Dukes balls also. “He’s a fantastic talent. He’s got a lot of wickets already at Test match level. I think he’s a great spinner for Test match cricket. He gets on top of his action a little bit and he gets the ball to bounce. “Yeah, I had the good fortune of meeting him a few years back at Gujarat, and kind of got to know him and understand him a little bit.
