India’s spin future 'in 48 hours:' Manav Suthar wins coach vs father battle by 7 wickets

On Friday, he accomplished a rare feat by becoming only the second spinner to secure a five-wicket haul at Anantapur, a venue known for favoring seamers. Due to his impressive performance, fans are urging for his inclusion in the Indian national team.

Speaking to Indian Express about his ongoing Duleep Trophy performance, he said, "To get wickets, I’d have to contain them first. That’s what I did. After the first innings, I figured that I’d have to slow down a bit to get some turn, which would be handy with the bounce on offer. Each pitch is different, so how you use your skillset is what matters."

"In the time I’ve spent watching Ashwin and Jaddu bhai, I’ve noticed how they vary their seam position, trajectory and speed to adjust to different pitches. Just because seamers were getting wickets, I can’t say there isn’t much help for spinners. So I was backing my skillset, and believed I could do it here," he stated.

Also his father initially wanted him to be a pacer, but his coach spotted his spin talent and turned him into a spinner. His father had told his coach, "Make him a batsman the world fears."

But his father's dream turned upside down, and he took another path. "My coach told him, ‘Sir, this fellow is made to be a spinner. Don’t stop him. He is my responsibility now.’ That was that," Manav revealed.

"He is a gifted spinner. The first aspect that struck me was how he gripped the ball. At 12, not many boys have that sort of grip. But he had to get a few other aspects right. He was getting good turn, but to make it effective, we worked on his body alignment a lot. It used to be a bit across earlier, but if you have to be successful at the highest level, you can’t have a faulty technique. So we started off by working on his alignment that allowed him to develop a repeatable action without any trouble," his coach Dheeraj said.

Suthar is also a known name in Indian cricket. At a camp in Alur last year, he wreaked havoc on Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul. "“After the session, everyone kept telling me, ‘keep doing what you are doing, you will be here and you will be troubling a lot of batsmen’. It was a huge confidence booster for me because I’d seldom bowled to any of them before that camp," he recalled.

Suthar has already represented India A and India Emerging team. He will be hoping to gain some experience in T20s, and could be a big name for India in the future.