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A West Indian slow bowler is one of those unspoken oxymorons prevalent in cricket that are nourished by antique traditions and desperately emphasized by obstinate perceptions. When Sunil Narine burst into the international arena, purists guffawed at his uncanny Mohawk and sneered at his overambitious label of a mystery spinner.
Cricket, in all its diversity, has witnessed the emergence of a mystery bowler on more than one occasion in history. Poignant tales of virtually unplayable bowlers being demystified and fading into insignificant mediocrity lay scattered down the lanes of time. The recent case of Ajantha Mendis offers a fine insight into the mockery of mystery by ultra slow-motion video replays that scrutinize spin bowling up to its atomic level.
The seductive appeal of a mystery bowler dwelling in the shadows of anonymity is what engages and excites the ardent cricket lover. It throws statisticians and analysts into a frenzy and offers food for thought to the critics. The element of enigma feeds on the paranoia of the opposition and matures into something more portentous than what it is in actual proportions.
When Kolkata Knight Riders launched Sunil Narine in the fifth edition of the IPL, it was primarily described as a perilous gamble in a hysterical quest for the title. At the end of the season, the Knights finished on top and Narine established himself as the best bowler in the tournament.
Since then Narine has mesmerized all and sundry with his unique style and unorthodox ambiguity. He has revelled in success while batsmen round the world failed to pick him on more occasions than one. He fascinated purists, agitated analysts and bamboozled critics as he left the world hooked to their television sets.
It’s not too tough for viewers on television to decipher a doosra or a carom ball from an off-spinner when the camera offers a view from the back, yet Narine’s mystery remains obscure even from a close-up.
The fact that Narine executes his off-spinners with a scrambled seam provides him with the additional advantage of being able to turn the ball both ways without prior notice to the batsman. He disguises his stock ball in an illegible fashion while banking on precision to exploit the vulnerability of a mentally unsure batsman.
The conjurer certainly knows his tricks well enough. A remarkable flick of the index and middle fingers produces the now famous knuckle ball which confounds the batsman precisely because it comes out of the front of the hand and turns away from the right-handed batsman. Pitching on off-stump, it is more than adequate to entice him to play the wrong line and offer a slick edge to the slips.
Sunil Narine: Is he good enough to be a Test bowler?
While Narine evidently does not possess all the variations to make him a complete off-spinner, he excels in his art by keeping it simple and reading the batman’s mind. His flat trajectory and decent pace make it exceedingly difficult for the batsman to leave the crease against him. His action is not really a give-away and it’s his poise and penchant for predating the opposition’s weakness that make him an enigmatic super-villain.
While these abilities make him a deadly weapon in limited overs cricket, it remains to be seen whether his craft flourishes against the patience of seasoned batsmen in Tests. 15 wickets in five matches is not really a dream start for a spinner who is looking to cement his spot in the Test squad. If morning shows the day, Narine’s mystery is already in its twilight.
With two wickets for 128 runs in the three ODIs against India, Narine’s mastery has now come under the scanner in limited overs cricket as well. The Indian batsmen have picked him up beautifully in the last three matches and have reduced him to the status of a bowler whose prime duty is to restrict batsmen.
Test cricket is widely regarded as the toughest facet of the game and it understandably remains the ultimate litmus test for a cricketer. Considering the endurance levels of today’s batsmen, Narine’s guile does not seem adequate to fetch him what he needs – wickets.
More often than not, batsman would be only too pleased to leave the odd one and play close to his body. With predictable pace and lack of variations, Narine doesn’t look like an intimidating customer who would make life extraordinarily difficult for the unweary batsmen.
Regardless of all his tricks, the opposition has begun deciphering his mystery and it is only a period of anticipation for the unavoidable before history repeats itself and Narine’s enigma is unravelled and shredded into bits, courtesy video analysis and eagle-eyed batsmen.
Fading into inevitability has always been the foremost destiny in a mystery spinner’s life and Narine has no superhuman skills to elude his fate. Unless, of course, he pioneers yet another ostensibly impossible delivery to deceive batsmen and stamp his copyright on the tag attributed to him.
