'Saransh Can Be Top Off-Spinner': Harbhajan

'Saransh is a very keen observer, he wants to keep learning.'
'He has the skills to be a top off-spinner, the way he releases the ball that is very good.'
'He is also mentally tough because he has played so much of domestic cricket.'

Saransh Jain's inclusion in India's Test squad for the two Test series in Sri Lanka next month came as a major surprise.

The 33-year-old Madhya Pradesh off-spinner may not be a popular name across the country, having not played in the IPL so far. But on the domestic circuit, he has established himself as one of the most consistent spinners in first class cricket.

He threw himself into the mix at the right time, following an impressive all-round performance for India A in Sri Lanka earlier this month.

In the second unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A in Galle, the off-spinner bagged six wickets in the two innings, while scoring a handy 70 not out at No 7 to play a key role in India A's 10-wicket victory.

This followed his good showing in the Duleep Trophy last season where he was the highest wicket-taker with 16 wickets from two games for Central Zone.

He has claimed 78 wickets in 22 games in the last three Ranji Trophy seasons for MP. He has also excelled with the bat for Madhya Pradesh.

In the Ranji Trophy last season, he was MP's highest run-getter with 518 runs in seven games at an average of 57.55, with a century and three fifties, while in the 2023-2024 season he amassed 432 runs in eight games with a century and a fifty.

Jain is the fourth spinner in India's 15-member squad alongside Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Manav Suthar.

Spin great Harbhajan Singh got a chance to watch Jain when he conducted the emerging spinners camp at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru in March.

Harbhajan, India's fourth highest wicket-taker with 417 wickets from 103 Tests, believes Jain has enough experience and the required skills to play Test cricket for the next few years provided he stays fit.

"At 33 he should feel he has done enough to be here. It doesn't matter where you start but all that matters is where you finish. This is just the beginning for him, and he can continue to play for many years. If he continues to be fit, he can bowl well when he is 40 also," Harbhajan tells Rediff's Harish Kotian in an exclusive interview.

You had a close look at Saransh Jain earlier this year. What is your take on his selection to the Test team?

At 33, he has a lot of experience. Bowling in the Ranji Trophy is not easy, especially with the kind of modern day batters we have. They play attacking cricket, they also play spin well and the pitches are not that helpful for the spinners.

The BCCI made it mandatory in domestic cricket to leave some grass on the pitch to make it a balanced track.

Saransh has a lot of experience of playing and bowling many overs in domestic cricket. He has a vast experience of first class cricket for the last 10, 12 years. He is a very good bowler from what I saw in the camp for the 4-5 days I was with him.

With the young spinners, I spoke more about the mental side of their game rather than wanting to make any technical changes like their action or delivery stride.

We worked on small little changes. Every bowler is different and they have their different style of bowling, stride, height, so I only worked on how to get the spinners better with what they are doing.

I feel that as a coach you need to improve on what the spinners are doing currently, add a few things, and not change things completely.

Just give them ideas and help them explore things like bowling from close to the wicket or from behind the crease, try to change the grip, or the position of your hand, small minor things which they can add to their armoury.

Field placement is another important thing for a spinner. A lot of spinners bowl well but they don't know how to set their fields.

A spinner needs to make the batter play according to his field rather than the batter working the gap in the field and take easy singles.

If you work on the field placement aspect, it will make you a better spinner.

Taking wickets is an art when it comes to spinners. So I was only working on the mental aspect.

I didn't want to change anything, just wanted to add some things to their mental aspect, how they think. I always used to tell them to think wickets, how to get a batter out, how to plan his wicket, it is a process in Test cricket.

You can sometimes get a wicket off the first ball or sometimes the wicket will make you wait for a long time, after bowling a long spell. That is why you need to have patience in Test cricket and keep focussing on bowling well.

Sometimes things don't work out the way you want, so you keep trying a lot of things, then you change your role and look to play a restrictive role by bowling tight lines, so the mindset changes.

Saransh Jain has said he has learnt a lot from you during the camp in Bengaluru. He shared a post on Instagram detailing how your mentoring helped him. His caption says: 'Kuch paane ke liye kuch khona nahi, kuch karna padta hai (To achieve something, you don't have to lose something, you have to work towards it). These weren't just words they were deeply felt and will stay with me.'

From what I noticed during the time I spent with him is that Saransh is a very keen observer, he wants to keep learning. He has the skills to be a top off-spinner, the way he releases the ball that is very good. As you grow and continue to play, you continue to add things to your armoury.

He is also mentally tough because he has played so much of domestic cricket. It is not easy but if you are not mentally strong, if you are not willing to take up the challenges, then you will fall apart.

Saransh has overcome all those challenges, that is why he has reached here.

I would say at 33 he should feel he has done enough to be here. It doesn't matter where you start but all that matters is where you finish.

This is just the beginning for him, and he can continue to play for many years. If he continues to be fit, he can bowl well when he is 40 also.

I feel skill wise he is there, mentally he needs to raise his game now. He doesn't need to change anything because he is playing international cricket, just follow the same process, maybe a little extra work on his fitness and everything will fall in place.

The big positive about Saransh's selection is not only that he is 33 years old but he has worked his way up through consistent performances in domestic red ball cricket and for for India A.
His selection shows that irrespective of age, the selectors are rewarding performances in first class cricket.

Ranji Trophy is the greatest measure of a player's skill and potential. You can only pick players for the Test team from first class cricket. Maybe you might pick a couple of players for Tests from T20 cricket.

But if you only follow T20 cricket and pick players only from there, then the deserving players from the Ranji Trophy will never get a chance.

Take a player like Aquib Nabi from Jammu and Kashmir, he has been picking so many wickets every season but still his hard work is not being rewarded. He should have been part of the Indian Test team. Why was he not picked?

Just because somebody is playing T20 cricket and just because he has got pace and bounce, why should he be picked for the Test team?

A player like Nabi, who has worked tirelessly in the Ranji Trophy and picked so many wickets, definitely deserves to play for India.

Don't pick players from the IPL for the Indian Test team. If they are good let them play T20 cricket and ODIs first and then judge if they are good enough to play at the international level or not.

If you are not picking a bowler, who has taken 50-60 wickets every season then he will naturally feel disappointed. It is your fault, you need to get your selection criteria right.

What would your advice be to the likes of Saransh or Manav Suthar, who will be playing Test cricket for the first time in Sri Lanka? What are the differences they will encounter as spinners?

The conditions will be similar to India. But the ball will be different, there you will not play with an SG ball but with a Kookaburra ball.

I spoke to the spinners even in the camp on how to bowl with different balls, how to hold the ball, and other things.

Like in my career, I was holding the Kookaburra too tight to get the right revs. First I made the mistake of thinking the grip is the same for the SG and Kookaburra ball but it was quite different.

You needed to hold the Kookaburra ball tighter to get the revs else it would slip from your hands. I figured it out late but after I made the change my performances with the Kookaburra ball improved.

I took it as a challenge to improve my bowling with the Kookaburra ball after I struggled initially. I had the right mindset, I didn't give up thinking that it is tough to bowl with this ball, I figured out a way to make it work because I could see other spinners doing well with it.

So you need to adjust to the ball, to the pitch and the conditions, that is what I told the boys at the camp.