As the Kiwis turn to Indian spin, Mumbai welcomes Ejaz Patel and Rachin Ravindra to home

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IIf you don’t live in Mumbai, you won’t be able to get it completely. If you have, you can never get past it.

This is a city that has more heart and soul per square foot than there is room for feet. Its train journey takes the breath away from your constricted lungs while its warm embrace fills you with hope and infinite possibilities. Just as the city’s relentless demands threaten to soak up your resolve, the breaking monsoon waves at Marine Drive make you swoon with enthusiasm.

And then it turns out you have a thing for cricket.

Azad. Oval. Shivaji. or a thousand others plains, Just walk on one and you’ll have a game. There is always room for one more player, space for another match, a vantage point for another lover of the game. With that move, you have passed the Rubicon, the point of no return. London may busy you, New York may intoxicate you, but Mumbai will always be your master.

Cricket in Mumbai makes friends of strangers, binds millionaires to the destitute, makes Tendulkar with big bats and big dreams with small tricks, and turns friendships gully For the World Cup at Wankhede.

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Kiwi team’s turn towards Indian spin

There is a city where a flight from Kanpur will deliver two kiwis – one who took his first steps on the same soil that had been blessed by Mumba Devi, and another whose parents named him after the city’s greatest cricket son .

Ejaz Patel and Rachin Ravindra, both in their first year of Test cricket, made their debut in the current India-New Zealand Test match later, for long deliveries for 91 gaps against the moves of their fellow tweakers (which had just happened). Organized the fort. to his name), with his team nine wickets down. In Kanpur’s Green Park, the two boys stood on the burning kiwi deck until Asha ran away from the dry face of Captain Kane Williamson. His insistence lasted a long time to get the boat safely to shore.

Feeling relieved after the stone-pelting, Ravindra admitted: “It was quite nerve-wracking. I think we somehow managed our nerves together. This is a moment I will never forget.” The two brave could not change the fact that the kiwi could not fly, but they ensured that neither Indian flag would win.

Ejaz Patel was born in Mumbai and grew up in the city until his parents moved to New Zealand with an eight-year-old child. He dreamed of becoming a left-arm fast bowler, but quickly realized that his 5’6″ frame was more suited to emulating the magic of Bishan Bedi’s fingers than delivering Zaheer Khan’s trademark yorkers.

Before the tour began, the 33-year-old had never played as a professional cricketer in India. His pre-tour interviews indicated his enthusiasm to return to his native land as a carrier of his most admired craft: “India is India, you have to experience it. It is one of those places that cannot be put into words.” Can’t describe.” If he picks up some Indian scalps at the same stadium where he watched his first Test match as a wide-eyed young boy, it must have indeed been an experience for him and his adopted countrymen.

Trandling at the other end of 22 yards will be Rachin Ravindra. The 22-year-old cannot claim origins in Maximum City (his parents are from Bengaluru), but his cricket connection to the land of his ancestors is deeper than that of his spin partner.

Read also: Sachin Tendulkar + Rahul Dravid equal New Zealand’s latest cricket debut, Rachin Ravindra

Rachin (RAhul-saochinRavindra is named after two of the most famous sons of Indian cricket. As a spinner, he may not have brought light to Kanpur, but his effort with the bat would certainly have lauded the two greats whose combined names adorn their birth certificates. Obviously, the wall of the opposition dressing room at Green Park would have reflected the same disappointment.

Unlike Patel, Ravindra is a familiar person with Indian pitches. He spent several months of his young life playing cricket for his techie father Ravi Krishnamurthy’s specially formed off-season touring squad – the Hut Hawks Club – to give experience to New Zealand aged cricketers every year. come to India. The squad has been training at the Rural Development Trust in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh for the past four summers (Kiwi winters) and has given valuable experience to not only Rachin, but also players like Jimmy Neesham and Tom Blundell, two of the world’s leading personnel . -Today’s beating Kiwi sides.

New Zealand have had high quality spinners in the past like Deepak Patel and Daniel Vettori, who have played a key role in India’s previous tours. But what reflects their newfound confidence as World Test Champions is the fact that not only did the selectors, for the first time in their history, have picked five tweakers for a Test series abroad, but in Kanpur, they have played three of them.

Read also: How spin king made India a fast bowler: Data shows Gabba, The Oval did wonders in a decade

homecoming in mumbai

Despite the valiant final wicket of the Indian spin-twin decked out in Kiwi feathers, one could argue that Ajinkya Rahane’s defensive and unimaginative captaincy in Kanpur allowed him to pull off a draw. It is a two-Test series and the returning Indian captain Virat Kohli, smarter from the World Test Championship final loss and the recent embarrassment in the World T20 in favor of Kane Williamson, will be eager to turn the table. For India with world’s premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, brilliantly complemented by the duo of Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, it will come as no surprise that the track at the Wankhede had changed from day one.

Kane Williamson will be well aware of this, and no one should be surprised if there is no change in the Kiwi XI in Mumbai. If that is indeed the case, then Wankhede’s outspoken answer stand, known for being biased towards anything involving its hero Sachin, will reserve the power of its vocal cords to please not only Indian heroes. Every time the ball is bowled towards Rachin Ravindra or Ejaz Patel, the noisy cloud rising from the stands will be enough to damage the delicate ears of unsuspecting spectators sitting nearby and television viewers around the world.

Whatever the outcome of the match, the two will not feel at home in the next five days at the Wankhede. It will not be just because the Kiwis have turned to Indian spin, but it will be for homecoming like none other, the joys of calling Mumbai to Mumbai.

Anindya Dutta @Cric_Writer is a sports columnist and author of Wizards: The Story of Indian Spin Bowling, and Advantage India: The Story of Indian Tennis. Thoughts are personal.

(Edited by Neera Mazumdar)

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