Santner revels in his role for MI
A lead spinner, but a supporting act to the pace battery, the Kiwi spinner has created his niche after years of waiting at CSK
Mumbai: Orthodox left-arm spinners don’t bag headlines these days. They don’t hit jackpots in player auctions. More wheels to T20 cricket have consigned traditional left-arm spin to the margins. Add the abhorrence to using incoming spin to left-handed batters among think-tanks has curtailed their role further.
Being accepting of this reality, adapting and carving your own niche is the only way to survive. Mitchell Santner has made a habit of doing that but it is only now in Mumbai Indians’ blues, after years at Chennai Super Kings, is he getting to put his hand up more regularly.
For most of the past seven years in Chennai Super Kings’ yellow, Santner warmed the bench. In seven seasons for CSK, the Kiwi spinner bowled just 61 overs over 18 matches. On average, that’s eight overs per season. Far too little for a spinner of his class.
By another metric, he bowled 3.3 overs per match at CSK. It’s the same amount of bowling he is doing for MI. Only this time, he has already featured in 10 of MI’s 13 league matches, which has allowed him to flourish.
“It’s obviously different being on the other side. I am getting a few more games as well, which is nice,” Santner recently said with a chuckle, when he faced CSK.
“The margins are very small against very good batters on small grounds. You have to be adaptable,” Santner added, explaining his survival instinct. “If there is spin, you can bowl more aggressively. Other times, bowl more defensively and build the pressure.”
Santner was a threat for batters, even when he played for CSK. They would usually play him only when the wicket truly assisted spin and there was room to play the extra spinner. For MI, he’s been allowed to take the mantle of being the premier spinner.
Even here, MI have avoided handing him a contest with powerful left-handers. For that, Will Jacks has filled in with his part-time off spin. But every time Santner has been handed the ball, he’s been thrifty as his economy of 7.60 would attest to. Ever a pragmatist, he knows that’s his role.
Only two left-arm spinners have picked up more wickets than the Kiwi in the season. One is Sai Kishore, who’s learned to bowl a variety of carrom balls. And Krunal Pandya, who bowls quicker than most left-arm spinners with the occasional bouncer thrown in.
In comparison, Santner is a purist. All his variations are subtle. It may be his use of angles and the crease or the pause before delivery. Occasionally, there are matches like against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday in Mumbai, when he’s handed a turner. Almost as if the curator, finally wanted to be nice to crafty spinners like him. Like a fly to honey, Santner was quick to seize the opportunity with a classy spell of 4-0-11-3. It could so easily have been four wickets, but for a dropped catch.
“I would rather have it spin like that more often than not,” he said about the pitch. “But, I guess, there is more pressure to take wickets. And I stuck to what I do the best, which is to change the pace. And the slower one was spinning, which was nice.”
Santner’s quickest ball on the spin-friendly Wankhede red soil pitch was 96.4, his slowest 77.7 and the average 87.8. To those uninitiated on spin bowling, those may be mere numbers. It is these varied bowling speeds that help Santner cast a spell on the batters.
Santner’s 7 wickets in 10 matches are not too many, but his ER of 7.6 is second best only to Jasprit Bumrah. To MI’s troika of pacers Bumrah, Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar, Santner has been the ideal support cast and somtimes, just understanding that, as the spinner has, can be a big deal.
