1st Time In 131 Years: India's Manav Suthar Scripts History On England Soil With Unique Record

India's rising star Manav Suthar is showcasing his spin brilliance on English soil. The left-arm orthodox spinner, after enjoying a brilliant start to his international career, is currently playing in England's County Championship Division One for Warwickshire. Suthar picked seven wickets against Hampshire and then scalped three against Glamorgan. He also scripted a unique record with his performance against Glamorgan in Cardiff. The spinner picked his three wickets in the game in just 15 balls without conceding a single run.

Suthar thus became the first bowler in 131 years of First-Class cricket to take three wickets without conceding a run. The last player to do so was England's Tom Hayward, who achieved the feat in six balls while playing for Leicestershire against Surrey at The Oval in 1895.

Suthar has played just three Tests, but the 24-year-old has already taken some big strides forward in grabbing India's spin baton from the past masters. He has impressive natural skills. His action is fluid, finishing with a classic high-arm release. The spinner often floats the ball above the batter's eyeline and makes them wait that extra second longer.

Suthar is also a meticulous planner. Perhaps, it's a trait imbibed from his father Jagadish Suthar, a PE teacher at a local school.

He made his Test debut against Afghanistan in July this year and picked seven wickets in the game. Suthar then featured in the two-match series against Sri Lanka, in which he picked 16 wickets.

Before travelling to Sri Lanka, the spinner visited the BCCI Centre of Excellence for specialised training under former India left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi.

At the CoE, they worked on optimising his run-up, besides bowling with Kookaburra balls, which are used in Sri Lanka, and recreating the open-field conditions of Galle, where sea winds create pronounced drift, at the local ground.

Here, the BCCI and team bigwigs too deserve a share of the credit for showing the right vision.

When India went on 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 would be better off playing County cricket for Warwickshire.

The reason was two-fold.

The team management didn't want Sri Lanka to have enough data on Suthar, and the English conditions would also give him an idea of how to bowl with the Dukes ball.

The effect was visible in the Sri Lanka series.

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