Karn Sharma is known in India’s domestic cricket circuit for his ability to bowl under pressure. Karn is someone who remains unperturbed even when he is ripped apart by batsmen for he believes getting hit is part of the game. He can bowl in slog overs – reason enough for selectors to pick him for the Australian tour and the team management went a step ahead by opting for him in the playing XI even at the expense of experienced R Ashwin and a performing star like Ravindra Jadeja.
Karn’s selection in the XI was supported by none other than former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar who hailed it as a great move. “Playing Karn Sharma was a great move. I liked how he kept his head up despite Warner and Clarke going after him,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying in the media.
Karn was candid on his debut. “I just got to know this morning that I will be making my debut. I had this confidence that I will get a chance sooner or later on this tour. But getting it in the first match itself is very good for me,” he said during the Adelaide Test.
Karn’s bowling figures in this match may suggest that he was picked prematurely. He claimed four wickets and conceded 238 runs and that sparked the debate whether Ashwin would have been better bait. Former leg-spin great Anil Kumble said Ashwin should have been in the middle at Adelaide.
Now that the Indian team is getting ready for the second Test in Brisbane, a pace-heaven, it remains to be seen if the team management would again restore its faith on this young spin sensation. But before the management, this time led by MS Dhoni, takes a final call on who is going to take the field, it needs to be reminded that Karn is a ‘classic cock-wrist spinner’- a rare phenomenon like Shane Warne.
He has a quick-arm action which helps a spinner to get more loop and bounce. In the past, there were times when even a legend like Kumble too had faltered on Australia soil. True that Karn could have got more purchase from Adelaide track like the way Australia’s Nathan Lyon did to spin the fortunes of the hosts, but he is young and needs time to settle down. The fact that he is raw was at display when he was seen bowling faster than the usual.
Even when Kumble started his career, he was too quick for a spinner, prompting a pundit once to comment “Kumble only turned the ball when he was at the end of his run-up”. But with experience, he slowed down and delivered leg-break with great effect. He had a great flipper and leg-cutter which often confused the batsmen. Kumble also had a dangerous straighter one.
Unlike Kumble, Karn made his debut on Australian track, which doesn’t support spinners. “Not many Indian spinners have made their debut on foreign soil. Those who did, couldn’t go a long way,” former chairman of the selection committee Krish Srikkanth was quoted as saying in the media. However, Karn is undaunted about it.
Despite being in a pressure situation where the senior spin department colleagues are on the sideline, Karn had a decent start to his Test career, if not great. At least, the team management has an option to solve India’s spin conundrum.
