Musheer makes statement century

Bengaluru: Naushad Khan’s cookie-cutter approach to coaching has resulted in his two sons batting in identical, if not aesthetically ideal, fashion. 

Both Sarfaraz Khan and Musheer Khan are ungainly, and not meant for those in the business of cricket technique, but their effectiveness cannot be denied. Moreover, they don’t mind looking bad to come good.

On Thursday, though, Sarfaraz was trapped leg before wicket, Musheer, remained loyal to his peculiar technique and earned brownie points for his efficacy.

On the opening day of India A’s four-day Duleep Trophy game against India B, Musheer put on a not-so-handsome 105 not out from 227 balls to guide Abhimanyu Easwaran’s men to 202 for 7 in 79 overs.

At this stage, it’s important to note that this pitch is one of the liveliest ones the M Chinnaswamy stadium has produced in a while. This naturally meant the likes of Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, Khaleel Ahmed and even Shivam Dube would have enough to exploit, and they did.

The top three pacers - Khaleel, Akash and Avesh - shared six wickets between them, and justified India A skipper Shubman Gill’s decision to bat first by reducing India B to 89 for 6.

Save for Musheer, who came in at No.3, few top-order batters had resistance to offer. So, India B needed the team’s youngest member at 19-years-old to bail them out. Musheer has done this for a while for Mumbai so his ability to save face for his side was never in doubt, but what strategy would he adopt this time?

The ball was moving off the seam, in the air, and the bowling quality was impressive.

Musheer, for thirteen overs, saw his side's openers Yashavi Jaiswal (30) and Easwaran struggle to find bat on ball. Of course, they had to leave a fair bit since the bowlers kept to the chase-me-if-you-dare channel, but when they did bowl it closer to the body, both were in all sorts of discomfort.

Once the opening pair was split, Musheer started dancing down the track to mitigate the effects of swing. He did it with such frequency that Dhruv Jurel, the wicketkeeper, started standing up to the stumps when Dube was bowling.

Naturally, Jurel couldn’t do that to the other, significantly quicker pacers, so Musheer walked down every chance he got.

In the process, as the pacemen started dragging this length to counter this walk, he picked the right deliveries to stay in his crease and punch runs off the backfoot.

When spin was introduced for the first time, in the 39th over, Musheer dealt Kuldeep Yadav with ease and gave Tanush Kotian the stick each time the off-spinner looped the ball.

Gill was running out of options because he wanted to save his pacers. As these tactical issues reared for the opposition skipper, Musheer grew in confidence and strength. In his presence, Navdeep Saini (29 n.o.) too understood his role and batted with a nice mix of defence and aggression to contribute to the 108-run eighth-wicket alliance.

If only Rishabh Pant had done the same. Alas.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA B: Yashasvi Jaiswal c (sub) b Khaleel 30 (59b 6x4) Abhimanyu Easwaran c Jurel b Avesh 13 (42b 1x4) Musheer Khan (batting) 105 (227b 10x4 2x6) Sarfaraz Khan lbw Avesh 9 (35b 1x4) Rishabh Pant c Gill b Akash 7 (10b 1x4) Nitish Kumar Reddy b Akash 0 (1) Washington Sundar (run out) ) 0 (13b) Sai Kishore c Rahul b Khaleel 1 (15b) Navdeep Saini (batting) 29 (74b 4x4 1x6). Extras (B-4 LB-2 NB-2) 8. TOTAL (for 7 wkts 79 overs) 202. 

Fall of wickets: 1-33 (Easwaran) 2-53 (Jaiswal) 3-67 (Sarfaraz) 4-80 (Pant) 5-80 (Nitish) 6-89 (Washington) 7-94 (Sai Kishore). 

Bowling: Khaleel Ahmed 17-4-39-2 Akash Deep 18-6-28-2 (nb-1) Avesh Khan 16-5-42-2 Shivam Dube 8-3-10-0 (nb-1) Kuldeep Yadav 14-3-50-0 Tanush Kotian 6-0-27-0.

In Ananthpur: Brief scores: India D: 164 all out in 48.3 overs (Axar Patel 86; Vijaykumar Vyshak 3-19 Anshul Kamboj 2-47 Himanshu Chauhan 2-19) vs India C: 91/4 in 33 overs (Abhishek Porel 32 n.o.; Axar Patel 2-16 Harshit Rana 2-13).