In 2013, Bhargav Bhatt dared to dream. Two members from the national selection committee alerted the Baroda orthodox left-arm spinner to stay in shape ahead of the new home season of Test cricket. R Ashwin was India’s lead spinner but Ravindra Jadeja was still finding his feet. Pragyan Ojha’s bowling action was under a cloud and Harbhajan Singh had by then lost his place.
Despite picking up a 7-fer against the visiting West Indies in an India A bowling attack that also comprised Zaheer Khan and Mohammed Shami, Bhatt’s phone didn’t ring. He would go on to tour Australia for three-day matches, also featuring South Africa, and do well. Years went by. Bhatt continued to pick a load of wickets on the Ranji circuit, but the national call-up never came.
On reaching the milestone of 100 first-class matches, the 36-year-old spinner reminisces about his peak years. For every domestic cricketer who successfully graduates to the international level, countless others don’t. Bhatt is also likely to miss out amid the intense competition among left-arm spinners, even though he has begun the new Ranji season brightly with 17 wickets in 2 matches.
“When I was playing under Adam Gilchrist for Kings XI Punjab in IPL, he told me one thing: ‘Ask yourself what you are doing to become better’,” Bhatt said. “He told me, ‘The opportunity will come if it has to’. That’s how I have always played my cricket.”
{{/usCountry}}“When I was playing under Adam Gilchrist for Kings XI Punjab in IPL, he told me one thing: ‘Ask yourself what you are doing to become better’,” Bhatt said. “He told me, ‘The opportunity will come if it has to’. That’s how I have always played my cricket.”
{{/usCountry}}Bhatt was noticed by IPL scouts for the 2011 edition - played 17 matches across 3 seasons - after a stellar Ranji season when he finished as the highest wicket-taker. He was yet to get a taste of T20 cricket.
“My debut match against Pune Warriors was low-scoring and Gilchrist never gave me the ball. They had mistakenly named me as a wicket-keeper in the TV gfx and I thought, maybe the captain felt I couldn’t bowl,” said Bhatt.
"A couple of matches later, Gilchrist came up to me and told me I would be used in the Powerplay against Rajasthan Royals to counter Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson. That’s when I first learned how tactics work at the highest level. The captain wanted to protect the mystery around my newness as no one had seen any visual of me bowling previously in white-ball cricket.”
T20 cricket took some mental adjustment for Bhatt. It took him time to understand that going for 35 runs in 4 overs wasn’t necessarily too many runs conceded.
“But IPL also made me a better bowler,” he said. “Bowling with boundary dimensions in mind, using angles, and bowling with different speeds is what I learned. IPL also took away all fear because I was bowling to the best batters in the world and that too in the Powerplay.”
It also helped him improve in red-ball cricket. “Earlier, people liked it if you flighted the ball,” Bhatt said. “Today, if you flight the ball for an entire over, there are enough batters who will take it on. So you learned to change your speeds and add more revolutions to the ball. Despite cutting the flight, get the ball to dip. Get drift, you learn all the time.”
In his early days, Bhatt remembers how he would long to run into a senior spinner like Murali Karthik, Sunil Joshi or Harbhajan, just to brush up on finer aspects of spin bowling. “Today, whether it is (Manav) Suthar, Harsh (Dubey), or Sai Kishore, we are always catching up: say in competitions in Chennai before the domestic season. We are like a spinners’ club, bouncing off ideas,” he said.
For his 390 first-class wickets, some remain more special. “There was a match against Mumbai and I had high fever. Yusuf Pathan told me not to take the field,” he said. “But how could I not, when Sachin Tendulkar was soon to arrive at the crease and Wasim Jaffer was at it? Yusuf told me if I took the field, I would have to bowl all day. I managed to bowl and got Sachin paaji out at slips.”
A career full of domestic grind on different pitches, conditions, weather and opposition makes you a complete spinner. Sledging the batter only got him fines, the ones where he outfoxed batters playing mind games are the ones he remembers best. Nothing equates to playing Tests for India, but even Ranji Trophy can be a very competitive field.
“Against Mumbai, I bowled to Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Rohit Sharma and others. Got them out. That was tougher than India A,” he said.
“Cricket gave me everything in life. It brought me both money and sukoon (inner calm). It helped me make new friends. I shouldn’t be expecting more,” he philosophises. “I know the size of the country where I am performing. There are so many spinners and I can only have control over my own bowling, not the competition. Until I play, all I strive for is to be the best bowler I can be.”