India captain Suryakumar Yadav played down the hype and chatter around Pakistan spinner Usman Tariq on Saturday (February 14). He said that Tariq’s action and character were ‘out of syllabus’ for India, but his team has prepared well for it and won’t surrender to it without a fight.
Tariq bowls with a round-arm action, which is legal and approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC) but difficult to execute consistently under the laws, which makes it a rare commodity. Batters also find it arduous to get under the flatter trajectories and find the big shots.
To add to that, Tariq also stops a bit in his follow-through, which is a bit of a grey area in the ICC rules, and has created a stir on social media. Suryakumar was confronted with that question in the pre-match press conference, where a Pakistani reporter called Tariq ‘out of syllabus’.
“Sometimes in an exam, you get a question out of the syllabus, but you can’t just skip it,” Suryakumar replied with a smile. You have to try something to tackle it and try something. Yes, he’s a different character, but at the same time, we can’t just surrender. We have practiced against bowlers with similar actions.
The hype around Tariq went up a notch after he took three wickets against the USA in the most recent game. India, on the other hand, didn’t help their case by conceding four wickets against Gerhard Erasmus, the Namibia captain who bowls with a similar round-arm action.
The action won’t be a complete novelty to most of the Indian players who have either seen bowlers like Kedar Jadhav use it or would have come across spinners who love experimenting in domestic cricket. India’s bigger concern is their recent torrid form against spin, which would be exposed by Tariq if the Premadasa Stadium offers a slow surface, which it is expected to.
