Arshdeep braces up for the big leap to Test cricket

Close your eyes and visualise Arshdeep Singh at the top of his bowling mark. What you are likely to see is the gangly left-armer, donning a black patka on his head and India’s blue shade over his vest, gliding into his delivery stride and swinging a new white Kookaburra either way in the endeavour to snare early wickets.

When that ball loses its sheen and turns soft in the latter phases, Arshdeep shifts his attention to predominantly targeting the blockhole and clattering the stumps. A sharp bouncer and a slower knuckle-ball, amidst other variations, make an appearance as and when his ever-ticking brain deems fit.

In all of this, there is nothing of Arshdeep with the red cherry and in creamy white flannels that you probably envisage. Understandably so, for he has only played a handful of First Class matches in a professional career that began seven years ago.

Since bursting onto the scene as a skinny teenager who won the 2018 U-19 World Cup in New Zealand, alongside India’s newest Test captain Shubman Gill, the pacer from Punjab has had a total of 21 matches in whites, which translates to just three appearances on average per year. In the same period, he has turned out in 169 T20 and 33 50-over matches.

It had pigeonholed him to a certain extent as a white-ball specialist, but he could engineer an alteration to that image over the next few months. On Saturday afternoon, at the BCCI headquarters in south Mumbai, the 26-year-old was named by chief selector Ajit Agarkar as a member of an 18-man squad that will embark on a five-Test tour of England next month. It is Arshdeep’s first-ever call-up to India’s Test squad, and he must be chomping at the bit like a painter with a blank canvas to get his expedition in the longest format underway.

If the opportunity to wear the whites and make the red ball move to his tune at the highest level had hitherto eluded Arshdeep, it was partly an unintended by-product of his excellence in the shortest format. Since his T20I debut in 2022, he has turned himself into an indispensable member of the Indian team in the slam-bang affair with 99 scalps in 63 matches — he is the country’s leading wicket-taker in the format. So splendid has he been that he has even been entrusted with the lead role on the occasions when Jasprit Bumrah has been convalescing on the treatment table.

Busy with shorter formats

But his contributions in the shortest format have come at a cost, even though Arshdeep wouldn’t construe it that way. With a tightly wound international calendar requiring the wiry athlete to spend much of his time with the limited-overs teams, he hasn’t had the opportunity of going through the grind of bowling long spells and spending tiresome days under the sun in the First Class game. Not often enough anyway.

Even in ODIs, in fact, he hasn’t played as often as he would have liked. After three matches as part of a second-string side in New Zealand in 2022, it was only 13 months later, in the aftermath of India’s gut-wrenching defeat in the ODI World Cup final, that he got another opportunity to showcase his wares.

He had an immediate impact, making merry against South Africa on a spicy Johannesburg surface and finishing with match-winning figures of five for 37 in the first of three ODIs. That he has still only appeared in nine ODIs so far is in no way a reflection of his skill.

Despite the limited chances outside of T20 cricket, which may have made some others conveniently settle for the big bucks and bowling four overs per game, it is to Arshdeep’s enormous credit that his drive to go through the rigours of the five-day game hasn’t dimmed. His childhood coach, Jaswant Rai, attests to it.

“For the last two years, he has been extra keen to play red-ball cricket,” Rai told The Hindu after Arshdeep’s Test selection. “He wasn’t getting chances. Whenever domestic red-ball cricket was happening, he was busy with some T20I series. But he wanted that red ball in his hands. So given his strong desire, he will certainly impress. I spoke to Arshdeep after the selection. He is very excited to make his Test debut. Every cricketer dreams of playing Test cricket. Hopefully, it will be fulfilled in England.”

Arshdeep wasn’t just paying lip service by talking up his aspirations to play Test cricket. When a two-month window opened up right after the IPL in 2023 for Arshdeep to go and play for Kent in England’s County Championship, the swing bowler, far from daunted by the prospect of being challenged in an unfamiliar environment, jumped at the opportunity. He went on to take just 13 scalps in five matches at 41.76, but what those numbers don’t convey are the long-lasting lessons, both on and off the field, that he would have no doubt extracted from his experience.

Key factor

Agarkar pinpointed Arshdeep’s exposure to English conditions as a key factor in his selection. Besides, his left-arm angle also provides a potential point of difference. “He’s had a little bit of experience of County cricket as well,” Agarkar noted during the press conference in Mumbai.

“Obviously plays every game that is available in domestic cricket. We’ve watched him, tall guy with the Dukes ball. There’s (left-arm) variety, and he’s been in decent form over the last couple of years. He’s just a quality bowler. We needed five seamers because Bumrah is unlikely to play all five Tests, so we needed adequate cover.”

In Rai’s view, the County stint has helped Arshdeep develop a greater understanding about the nuances of his craft. “Mentally he is very tough. He has matured a lot, and knows how to bowl based on the format. He can adapt very quickly. He is now able to gauge the different conditions and decks, and adjust accordingly. Having played County cricket is going to help him a lot. He is aware of the lengths to bowl with the new ball, and when the ball becomes old, he knows how much to pull his length back. So he will definitely reap the benefits of his experience there,” Rai asserted.

With a few weeks to go before that first Test at Headingley begins on June 20, the sort of pitches that will be on offer during the English summer is shrouded in mystery. Ever since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum came together as England captain and coach, respectively, and pushed for an ultra-aggressive brand of cricket, the balance of play in that part of the world has tilted towards the batters. If that is the case, fast bowlers in both camps will have to brace themselves up for a hard scrap.

Ability to swing the ball

If the venues, however, retain their usual character and produce pitches that assist lateral movement through the air, Arshdeep could be in play. From what we have seen of his limited-overs career, he has the tools in his locker to put the techniques of top-order batters through the wringer.

“The skill to find swing doesn’t change irrespective of the colour of the ball. Not every bowler has that skill. The conditions in England should be favourable to him. Perhaps if he had got a chance in Australia, the surfaces may not have been as suitable. But swing bowlers thrive in England,” Rai said.

It is with subtle changes in the seam and wrist position that Arshdeep, and other highly-skilled practitioners of swing bowling, go about making the ball talk at will. In the Punjab bowler’s case, said Rai, the away-going delivery to right-hand batters needed a little bit of extra work.

“The in-swinger to right-handers is his stock ball. Earlier, he couldn’t move the ball away from the right-hander. He would just rely on it to hold its line. But now he has started to swing it away too. He has worked very hard on this aspect.”

At this moment, Arshdeep may be at the bottom of the pecking order as he is the only uncapped member in a five-man pace attack. But given the onerous demands of a long tour and the uncertainty surrounding Jasprit Bumrah playing all five Tests, Arshdeep could get a crack at some point.

And perhaps once that happens, the image of the left-armer, clad in whites, taking wickets with the red cherry and wheeling away into the arms of his converging teammates won’t be hard to visualise.