Mishra: Quality over quantity
THIRD MAN Despite playing essentially as a third spinner, the 33-year-old has provided vital breakthroughs this series
NEW DELHI: Being the third bowling option is a tricky affair. Be it a pacer or spinner, one does not get into the playing eleven unless the conditions overwhelmingly favours the type of bowler. And because it does, the first two may invariably get the job done. The third man may end up bowling just a few overs, and may not have much success to show. It can be more frustration than happiness despite getting the opportunity.
Amit Mishra could easily have been bracketed with those left with mixed feelings in a rejoicing side. However, the leg-spinner has made it count. While R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been the main strike force, the seasoned bowler has made an impact in his own way.
He has taken only seven wickets. Ashwin has 24 and Jadeja 16 so far in the series. But those seven include AB de Villiers in both innings in the Mohali Test.
He was the batsman who threatened to take the game away even on a turning pitch, until Mishra bowled him in both innings. He was dropped in Bengaluru, but rain washed out play on four days. DOUBLE STRIKE And in Nagpur, where Ashwin took a career-best 12/98, it was Mishra who accounted for South Africa’s top-scorers in both innings. He removed skipper Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis in successive overs in the second innings just when they seemed to have settled down to make a match of it, turning the match around.
It reflects Mishra’s confidence gained from the preceding Sri Lanka series. Having made a Test comeback after almost four years, he complemented Ashwin in the first Test loss in Galle, edging out the off-colour Harbhajan Singh. He did the holding job for Ashwin when required, and also contributed crucial runs with the bat in India’s first series win in Sri Lanka for 23 years. Mishra took 15 wickets in the series.
“You get satisfaction when the performance helps the team win, not when you bowl 50 overs with no wickets. Bowling small spells and getting important wickets is good for me and the team,” he said at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Tuesday, two days ahead of the fourth Test against South Africa. “A bowler has to bowl according to the behavior of the wicket and sometimes you have to block runs as well.”
Skipper Virat Kohli’s backing has given confidence to the seasoned campaigner,
the Nagpur Test being an example. As Amla and du Plessis led the fight in the second innings, Mishra got his chance. “Virat asked me what to do, I said ‘I feel I can take a wicket’. We discuss and plan how to bowl to which batsman. Sometimes Virat suggests options for a specific batsman. He always supports me, whether I am bowling well or not.”
Mishra knows the Ferozeshah Kotla pitch as well as any spinner in the country. But that may be no guarantee for a place in the playing eleven if the team management feels the need to play a second pacer. On such days, the knowledge that the team appreciates his role will provide comfort.
We have not been given due credit with so much talk about the pitch. Our achievements should have been highlighted more and talked about. Our home conditions have been like this for the last 15 years, and it is not from today.
ON TURNING TRACKS I thought if the spinners are bowling well, then at least praise them for doing well. It is not that spinners got wickets only because of these pitches. We also have done well outside the country. ON PITCHES HELPING INDIA SPINNERS