Manav Suthar 's meteoric rise from the lone cricket facility in Sri Ganganagar, a remote outpost of Rajasthan, to the periphery of the national team has generated tremendous excitement within Indian cricket, most notably among the selectors. At 22, Suthar is now fairly high on the ladder of India's next-in-line spinners.
Last July, Suthar, a classical left-arm spinner, picked up 10 wickets at 19.50 for India A at the Emerging Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. In November-December, he toured South Africa with India A. Earlier this year, he played for India A against the England Lions in Ahmedabad, where he showed another dimension to his game: batting.
Chasing 490, India A were reduced to 219 for 5 early on the final day. Suthar joined KS Bharat to forge an unbroken 207-run stand. From staring at defeat, India A saved the game, finishing just 64 runs short of theit target; Suthar's own contribution was an unbeaten 89 off 254 balls.
Suthar's latest hit came last week, when he celebrated his Duleep Trophy debut with a stunning exhibition of left-arm spin bowling in Anantapur. He picked up 7 for 59 in India D's second innings, and then made a crucial unbeaten 19 from No. 8 to help his team, India C, clinch a low-scoring thriller.
The key to Suthar's performance lay in his preparation. In June, he was training at home in 50-degree temperatures when he received an unexpected opportunity. "India Cements called me asking me if I'm interested to play in the [TNCA] first-division league," he says. "It was my first stint there [he represented GrandSlam Cricket Club].
"On my debut, I picked up an eight-for and scored 42. I had heard a lot of things about it [club cricket in Chennai]. For spinners, it's great practice, so I said yes immediately. Shahrukh Khan [the Tamil Nadu batter, who was his team-mate at Gujarat Titans] was my team-mate. Played five games prior to coming to the Duleep Trophy."
Suthar's connection with Chennai goes deeper. It stems from a deep admiration for [R] Ashwin. "His bowling, variations, how he responds with some kind of variation for all kinds of surfaces, the way he uses the crease - for me, it's like he's the perfect idol," Suthar says. "When I hadn't started playing, I wanted to be like Yuvraj [Singh]. Even now, he's my all-time favourite, but as a bowler, I love Ashwin bhaiyya ."
Vineet Saxena , a Ranji Trophy winner with Rajasthan, remembers watching Suthar for the first time during a pre-season tournament in the summer of 2022. Saxena had taken over as Rajasthan's coach ahead of the 2022-23 season, and he watched Suthar trouble some top Mumbai batters in a series of T20 practice games in the pre-season.
"I played three games [there], two against Mumbai where I got a three-for in each game," Suthar remembers. "Sarfaraz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube were all there. I got Dube in both games, Sarfaraz once. That's where Vineet sir saw me play for the first time."
Saxena was particularly impressed by how Suthar held his own against the left-hand batters. Those performances helped him push Suthar's case further. He was handed a T20 debut in Rajasthan's Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy opener against Madhya Pradesh , for whom Venkatesh Iyer made an unbeaten 31-ball 62. Suthar finished with 2 for 15 in three overs, and according to Saxena was the only bowler who exerted a semblance of control against Iyer.
"I think he bowled eight balls to Venky and conceded only at a run-a-ball," Saxena remembers. "Venky was smacking the rest of the bowlers for fun. The big quality Manav has is the confidence he has to hold his own against quality batters. He is unfazed."
Suthar had made his first-class debut the previous season, and had featured in two Ranji games. He became a regular in 2022-23, and ended that season as Rajasthan's highest wicket-taker with 39 scalps in six matches at an average of 20.33.
"How can I deceive a batter in flight and not get predictable with my lengths," Suthar says, when asked what he thinks about when he comes on to bowl. "[Try to] either beat them in flight or in length, not make myself predictable.
"I try and get the ball to dip so that I can induce a top edge if they're looking to slog. In T20s, I mix it up with lengths, try and keep the ball away from their hitting arc. If it's a good shot, no problem. I don't want to feed them. I focus on lengths, try and read the batters and avoid bowling there [to their strengths]."
Much of Suthar's accuracy and stamina is down to his initial days, when he'd "bowl, bowl and bowl", at times even for six hours straight in the summer heat under coaches Dheeraj Sharma and Vinod Saharan. On many occasions, he'd be the only one training at an empty net even when no one was watching.
"Spot bowling helped me develop bowling on a tappa , put more body into my deliveries," Suthar explains. "You're able to put in more revs. I did this to get in tune with the basics. At one point in the off-season, I used to bowl easily 30-40 overs of spot bowling over 3-4 hours. Bat for 15 overs, bowl for 20 overs. Used to repeat this twice."
Suthar feels growing up in a small town came with its challenges, but says he channeled them positively, knowing he didn't have to compete with thousands in a big city for training time or practice.
"Coaches were able to give a lot of time," he says. "The same coaches who've seen me since childhood are still there, so the moment something is off with my game, they can figure out and then they tell me. Matches were quite few, but I got quality practice while growing up."
Suthar made his IPL debut earlier this year with the Titans, after two years of being part of their camp as a net bowler. As he looks back on his rise, there's only gratitude towards his father and his coaches.
"The support from father has been incredible," he says. "Everyone used to tell me cricket won't take me far, focus on studies. There's nothing there in the game. But dad supported from the first day. He always told me forget what others say, you just play and enjoy the game, we'll see what happens.
"Early on, when I went to an academy for the first time, dad got me everything I needed, paid the fees as well. But due to financial constraints he couldn't sustain it for long," Suthar says. "[Coach Dheeraj Sharma] sir then said from now on, you don't need to pay the monthly fees [INR 500], just work hard, we'll take care of you."
Recently, Suthar surprised his father, a physical education instructor, by gifting the family a car from his IPL earnings. He's now dreaming of an even bigger gift, an India cap, and he's ready to give it his all to make it happen.
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