Former Indian batter Ajay Jadeja has lavished praise on Manav Suthar amid the first Test match against Sri Lanka. Suthar returned with impressive figures of 4-76 in 21.4 overs, he bowled and played a key role in skittling out Sri Lanka at 284. The left-arm orthodox spinner struck on his first ball, dismissing Sri Lanka’s veteran batter Dinesh Chandimal.
Furthermore, he accounted for Lahiru Udara, Prabath Jayasuriya and Lahiru Kumara. While the former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif called Ravindra Jadeja the Kohinoor diamond, Ajay Jadeja thinks Manav Suthar is an unpolished jewel.
“These are great signs for Indian cricket. We have praised Ravindra Jadeja a lot just now. He (Suthar) also bowls left-arm spin, but he is a totally different bowler. Jadeja is at the top of his career. This is just the start of his (Suthar’s) career, and we are seeing him outperform from now itself,” Ajay Jadeja said on Sony Sports.
“The advantage for him is that he has a senior left-arm spinner with him who has so much experience. If Jadeja is the Kohinoor, which is already polished and put on the crown, he (Suthar) is that jewel that will be polished now. We haven’t yet seen its shine,” he added.
Jadeja highlighted that the former Indian cricketers were happy when Suthar was getting the dip on the ball against Sri Lankan batters.
“How you use him can decide whether he can be a part of the greats. We could see a smile on Murali Kartik, WV Raman, and Venkatapathy Raju’s faces when they were talking about him today. It’s almost like a lost skill. The dip he gets, a bowler almost longs for that. It was like the ball was attached to a string. All our faces lit up seeing that skill,” Jadeja observed.
On the other hand, former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif also praised Suthar for his impressive spell and pointed out that the spinner is not used to bowling with the Kookaburra ball.
“He is not used to bowling with the Kookaburra ball. He plays with the SG Test in India. It’s not easy to bowl with the new Kookaburra ball. He picked up a wicket with his first ball. Then he took another wicket when Yashasvi Jaiswal took the catch, and took two wickets later with the old ball,” he said.
At lunch on day four, India were leading by 294 runs.
