Navdeep Saini is but to make his Test debut, although he has quietly risen within the ranks over the past two seasons to turn into one in all India’s most promising white-ball bowlers. The harm to Umesh Yadav has put the highlight on Saini forward of the third Test in Sydney that begins on Thursday. Does the scrawny pacer from Taraori, Haryana, with a whippy bowling motion and the propensity to ship stumps flying, possess the skillset and technical nous to outlive the rigours of Test cricket in Australia?
His teammates and coaches from Delhi, who’ve watched him make the seamless development to worldwide cricket, consider he has what it takes to make an on the spot influence with the purple Kookaburra ball. Brute tempo, married to the power to extract reverse swing, they are saying, are a number of the attributes that not solely make the 28-year-old a mouth-watering proposition, but in addition the perfect candidate to fill within the void created by Umesh’s absence.
“I don’t necessarily subscribe to the notion that Saini’s bowling style is only suited to the Gabba, the venue for the fourth Test of this series. There’s no doubt that he will relish bowling at that ground, but I also believe that he will be equally potent in Sydney. Even though it’s a pitch that tends to get abrasive and assist spinners, the resultant footmarks will provide Navdeep with the opportunity to get reverse swing. Trust me, he is devastating when the ball begins to reverse,” Sanjeev Sharma, who was Delhi’s bowling coach when Saini made his First-Class debut seven years in the past, tells The Indian Express.
“Getting the ball to reverse at 130kmph is a futile exercise, because most batsmen in international cricket will figure out how to counter it with ease. It’s when bowlers begin to reverse it consistently at 145kmph that it instills fear into batsmen. Look at some of the practitioners of this art: Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan, they all did it at blistering pace. Even Saini has perfected this, which makes him dangerous.”
Saini’s Delhi teammate Pradeep Sangwan concurs. He cites the instance of the 2017 Ranji Trophy semifinal towards Bengal in Pune to stress his level. “I clearly remember the way he bowled in the second innings of that match. Delhi had gained a 100-run lead and when they came out to bowl, Saini just let it rip. He was bowling like a man possessed. The pitch was worn out and it looked like our spinners would come into play. But he got four wickets, all bowled, and all through reverse-swinging deliveries. He took Delhi to the final on the back of that match-winning performance.”
Sangwan says that other than tempo and lethal reverse-swing, Saini can be blessed with indefatigable vitality ranges, a results of him placing within the exhausting yards on the health club and monitoring his weight-reduction plan intently. “He has been involved with some very good people off the field who have helped him improve his fitness levels dramatically. He is more muscular now and it has played a role in his evolution. You will never see Saini dropping his pace. Whether it’s his first spell of the day or last, he is consistently over the 140kmph mark. Woh kabhi thakta nahin (He doesn’t get tired). This is another essential attribute to succeed in Test cricket,” Sangwan explains.
The left-arm seamer opines that since Australian pitches hardly supply any motion within the air, it’s crucial for quick bowlers to have that further yard of tempo to hassle batsmen. He believes that Saini, being primarily a hit-the-deck bowler, will thrive in such situations. Sangwan provides the instance of England’s travails Down Under over the past two sequence to clarify this level.
“Why have England performed so poorly in Australia over the last 10 years? That’s because they had a one-dimensional pace attack that included James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Tim Bresnan, all bowling at the same pace, around 135kmph mark. On pitches that do not offer any movement in the air, you need to have someone bowling really quick. Thankfully, despite losing Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, India have three quality pacers in Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Saini, who not only bowl quick, but can also sustain pressure,” he notes.
It’s not simply his teammates who rave about Saini however opposition batsmen too. Faiz Fazal, Vidarbha’s Ranji-winning captain and opener, remembers Saini specifically for the “heavy balls” he delivers, and the way he’s naturally harmful towards left-handers.
“The world has seen his pace in ODIs but his biggest strength is how he combines that pace with heavy balls. And he used to produce that on Indian tracks, not easy. Tall, slim and easy action – you don’t even realise how quick he can be, as it feels he bowls within himself and yet is very quick,” Fazal feels. If he performs the following Test, I can see him troubling the left-handers. His pure ball strikes away from them and he also can bowl it from around the stumps. And he’s disciplined, doesn’t spray the ball round, and can construct up strain.”
Both Sangwan and Sharma performed down Saini’s sometimes-profligate methods within the shorter codecs. “You can’t compare formats. The pressure of bowling in a T20 game is different to that of bowling in a Test match. In white-ball cricket, you don’t really have the time to plan and stage a comeback. Whereas in a five-day game, you can still make amends after a couple of dissatisfactory spells,” Sangwan affords.
Sharma says: “In contemporary cricket, it’s all about current form. A year back, I saw Siraj bowling in a Ranji Trophy match for Hyderabad against Arunachal in Chandigarh, and he made no impact whatsoever. Judging by the way he bowled then, he would not have made it to the Indian team. But look at him now… he was given an opportunity and he had the confidence to perform on the big stage. Similarly, I really don’t think Saini’s past performances matters. He has been with the Indian team for some time now, and knows what is expected of him. Maybe, (head coach) Ravi Shastri and (bowling coach) Bharat Arun have picked up something watching him bowl in the nets.”
