Manav Suthar provided a refresher course on left-arm orthodox spin bowling on day two of the Dulles Trophy match between India C and India D in Anantapur.
His run-up to the popping crease is not as smooth as you would expect from a classic left-arm spinner like Bishan Singh Bedi, for example. It is a modern twist that Suthar has brought. But there is no compromise in flight and the will to pitch it up.
He commanded both variables at will against India D, bringing a brilliant innings that saw them bow out in just 10 overs. Suthar orchestrated a stunning collapse to reduce India D from 186/4 to 203/8 before ending the day with 5 for 30 in 15 overs.
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“The best part is: he gets batsmen out in the field,” said Vineet Saxena, Suttar’s former coach in Rajasthan. “They don’t try to attack him. So he gets you out with a good delivery. He has turn, he has bounce. And he doesn’t insist on flighted deliveries. He has a mix of pace. That’s his good point,” he added.
In fact, Suthar’s biggest scalps on Friday were from two set batsmen, Devdutt Padikkal and Ricky Bhui, both of whom were trying to defend. He caught the former’s gloves with a sharp turn, and the ball bounced off his pads and flew to first slip. Bhui failed to get his bat in front of his pads in time and was trapped in front of his leg, collapsing under the change of pace. The fact that Bhui grounded him in the same over must have made the wicket sweeter. Between the two wickets, he fooled KS Bharat in flight and miscued him to drive to long-off.
Dhiraj Sharma, Suttar’s childhood coach in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, recalls that mastering the flight and controlling speed were crucial to his progress.
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“He was 12 when he came to my academy around 2013. He batted, but I thought he could be a good spinner because he was left-handed. Initially, his action was not aligned properly. His hands were not moving from his ears properly. He would finish towards the middle and leg. So we worked on his footwork in the preparation phase. We created a path for him to release the ball. The moment his body was aligned, the bounce and flight came naturally. If the hands are close to his ears, it gives him a nice loop trajectory. If you release it at an angle, it flies a little flat,” explains Sharma.
Suttar made his debut for Rajasthan in the 2022 Ranji Trophy and took 65 wickets in 14 first-class matches. His breakthrough came in the 2022/23 season, where he became Rajasthan’s highest wicket-taker. In 2024, Suttar was included in the India A squad that faced England Lions for three unofficial Tests. He played only one match but took five wickets in two innings.
Sharma believes Suttar’s natural choice for the long format was his comfort with the red ball, having spent most of his childhood playing it. “He represented Rajasthan at the Under-16 level and eventually at the Under-19 level. That’s where he started with the white ball. But he’s played most of his life with the red ball,” he says.
Nevertheless, Suttar has taken to the white-ball format like a fish to water. He finished joint second in the 2023 Emerging Asia Cup with 10 wickets in five matches. But six of those came in crucial matches, three each in the semifinals and final against Pakistan and Bangladesh. In fact, Saxena had a glimpse of Suttar’s white-ball prowess before he saw him play red-ball.
“I saw him last year. We played a practice match against Mumbai before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Shivam Dube was in the batting and he likes left-handed spinners. Suthar bowled about 11 balls and gave only seven or eight runs and eventually got him out,” he says.
“In T20s, he didn’t get that much opportunity (for Rajasthan) because at that time, Rahul Chahar and Ravi Bishnoi were playing for India. Obviously, you can’t go with three spinners. But in Ranji Trophy, he got a chance and when Rahul wasn’t available, he (Manav) thrived,” Saxena elaborates.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Suttar’s success came from the glamour of the Premier League (IPL). It was through meticulous domestic cricketing that Sharma believes it worked wonders for his confidence in a way the IPL could not.
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“A bowler matures only after bowling a lot. Spot bowling provides the basic skills. However, the idea of bowling according to the match situation and the strengths and weaknesses of the batsman will only come with match experience. How to adjust the length and which areas to target are determined by the length of the match.
“The biggest change is his confidence. It’s one thing to say, ‘Okay, I can try,’ but the moment you tell him to do something, his first reaction is, ‘I can’t do it. I’ll do this mainly“(I would do this) because I think it’s because I play too much,” Sharma says.
His exploits in the domestic circuit have also earned him an IPL contract and he has signed with Gujarat Titans in the 2024 auction. But both Sharma and Saxena expect Suthar not to stop here and will work towards his original goal.
“He got a chance to play red-ball games against India A, South Africa and England. So the selectors think he can make it. Maybe in one, two or three years. But he has to keep working,” Sharma points out.
Saxena is bolder in his declaration: “I see him playing for India. The best 60 red-ball players in this Duleep Trophy are playing for India. So picking number 5 here makes sense in itself.
