Bedi in a spin over Santner

AN Indian spin-bowling legend has likened Mitchell Santner to a young Daniel Vettori after meeting the New Zealand spin trio during the team’s time in Kolkata.

Keen to offer his help after watching India’s first test win at Kanpur, Bishan Singh Bedi reached out to the Kiwi camp.

Regarded as one of the finest left-arm spinners of all-time, with 266 test wickets at a striking average of 28.71, Bedi had been particularly impressed with young Kiwi all-rounder Santner, also a left-arm orthodox.

While the Black Caps were in Kolkata for the second test, Bedi spent about 90 minutes with Santner, Ish Sodhi and Jeetan Patel at the team’s hotel.

He came away with his opinion of Santner, whose five wickets in Kanpur took his career statistics to 24 wickets from nine tests at 31.41, further enhanced.

‘‘I was very impressed with Mitchell,’’ the 70-year-old said from his home in south Delhi, ahead of the third and final test which started yesterday.

‘‘A lovely kid, very intelligent and I like his humility. He gives me the impression of another Daniel Vettori.

‘‘I liked his attitude, because if you’re a good listener you can become a good student of the game. And in my humble opinion a good cricketer is one who is a good student of the game.

‘‘He is also a very good batter, a potential outstanding all-rounder for New Zealand.’’

It was high praise coming from someone who took more than 1500 wickets at just 21.69 in a first-class career spanning two decades.

Santner wasn’t entirely comfortable with being compared to Vettori, New Zealand’s second highest test wicket-taker behind Sir Richard Hadlee with 361.

The Northern Districts product reckoned he would be satisfied to end up ‘‘half as good’’ as the man he played five first-class games alongside as an 18-year-old.

However, Santner was more than happy with the chance to speak to Bedi, and backed up the Indian great’s assessment of him as a student of the game.

‘‘When I was younger I used to research. I wasn’t that much of a [nerd] but any spinners I used to look up,’’ the 24-year-old said.

‘‘It is always good to talk to a legend of the game . . . I used to hear stories about the way he bowled and how it looked very easy. It was cool, we definitely took out some things we can take into our games, especially in these conditions’’

Bedi’s willingness to offer advice comes from a firm belief knowledge is useless if not shared. He would even love to come to New Zealand and talk to more young Kiwi spinners.

And while he admits he is a ‘‘very old fashioned’’ thinker of the game, known for his disinterest in the ‘‘hit and run nonsense of T20’’, Bedi also asserts that beliefs are not out of place in a modern context.

He is optimistic some of those are not lost on Santner.

‘‘In my opinion, Mitch has to play more of the longer version. If you are a good test cricketer, you can adjust to T20s and one-dayers but if you are only good at T20s or one-dayers, test cricket becomes very tough.’’