Manav Suthar, a boy from border town of Sri Ganganagar foxes Pakan A batters as India A record comprehensive win

In a time when traditional left-arm spin bowling is dying with bowlers hesitating to pitch it up, Manav Suthar comes as a breath of fresh air. He is tall, slender, bending in the breeze, someone who bowls with a string attached to his hand and is not afraid to give flight.
It was pacer Rajvardhan Hangargekar, who bagged a fifer, set the tone up front with two wickets and then cleaned up the tail but it was Manav’s spell of 3 for 26 in the middle overs, which pegged Pakan A on the back foot.
Based out of Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, that is barely 5 kms from the Pakan border, Suthar was the stand out bowler of the day. It was because of his effort, India A restricted Pakan A to a modest target of 205.

Make that 3️⃣ wins in a row for India ‘A’ in the #ACCMensEmergingTeamsAsiaCup!
A formidable eight-wicket win over Pakan ‘A’ 👏🏻👏🏻
Scorecard – https://t.co/6vxep2BpYw #ACC pic.twitter.com/0iAiO8VkoY
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 19, 2023
Later, opener Sai Sudharsan played a sparkling hand of 104 from 110 balls to take his team past the target. He would seal the win with a six that would see him cross hundred.
In his second over, Suthar, 20, found the outside edge of Kamran Ghulam. With no slip in place, it went for four. In the next over from the same length, he beat the outside edge. A nervy Ghulam looked unsettled and on the very next ball, he tried to give it a whack but was beaten the turn and wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel did the rest.

His second wicket is a dream dismissal for any left-arm spinner. He cleaned up Haseebullah Khan with the ball hitting the top of off-stump. Pakan captain Mohammad Haris, a regular in Pakan’s white-ball team and a star of the Pakan Super League, tried to take on Suthar. After conceding two boundaries, Suthar kept bowling to his length, waited for Haris to make a make and finally had his man with the Pakan skipper ballooning one up at short mid-wicket to his Indian counterpart Yash Dhull.
Back in the border town of Shri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, Suthar’s coach Dheeraj Sharma was constantly checking the scores as he was not able to watch the match because of his coaching duties.
“There’s a state U-23 tournament going on and I couldn’t watch the game. I saw the highlights at the innings break. Mohammad Haris was a big wicket but the way he got Kamran Ghulam was the best one for me,” Sharma told The Indian Express.
Suthar hails from Sri Ganganagar, which is around 480 kms away from the state capital Jaipur and is the first cricketer who has played at level for India.
The 20-year-old has a stellar domestic season in 2022-23, where he bagged 90 wickets in a year. He was the leading wicket-taker for Rajasthan in Ranji Trophy with 39 wickets in six games. Prior to that he has bagged 14 wickets in seven U-25 One Day meets and then took 37 wickets in the CK Nayudu Trophy.
The spinner went unsold in the last year’s IPL auction, which left him disappointed but his coach reminded him that he should aim to play for India, rather than for any IPL team.
“I told him India khelna hai ya IPL? You need to decide,” Sharma recalls the conversation.

“He was picked as a net bowler for Gujarat Titans and it was good for him to get thet IPL feel. He is young, he is seeing his India U-19 teammates in different franchises. Once he came back, we started working on his arm ball, there was a bit of inconsency in that. He asked me ‘sir how to fix it?’ I took him to the nets and said keep bowling. Now in this tournament, he has got 80 per cent right.
“He is still a work in progress, but for our region, he is definitely a star. And after today’s performance, he is a superstar now,” laughs Sharma.
Manav’s father, Jagdeesh Suthar, a physical education teacher in a private school in Sri Ganganagar was the first one, who spotted the spark in his son.
“He was very athletic from a very young age. I noticed that he was more keen towards cricket. He would bowl for hours with a tennis ball inside the house. It was a one step bowling. I think he was 11, when I took him to the academy and he has lived up to my expectations. I wanted him to excel in sport; I am glad that he is doing well,” says Jagadeesh.