By N.Ananthanarayanan
NEW DELHI, India, March 17 - A country with a rich
heritage in spin bowling, India appears to have unearthed
another gem in teenager Piyush Chawla.
Veteran Anil Kumble took his 500th wicket in the current
series with England, but the one wicket taken by leg spinner
Chawla on his debut in the second test victory underlined his
credentials as Kumble's eventual successor.
Chawla, who bowls quick leg breaks and a sharp googly, was
given just 14 overs to make an impression and claimed the wicket
of England skipper Andrew Flintoff.
Aged 17 years and 75 days, he became the youngest Indian
test player since Sachin Tendulkar made his debut aged 16 years
and 205 days.
Still in his maiden first class season, it was easy to see
why the Indian selectors trusted him to support Kumble and
off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
"Piyush is still young and will learn a lot from this
experience," said Kumble. "We need to give him a little more
time to settle in."
The youngster said he was thrilled to share the dressing
room with Kumble and was ready to learn from the man with 16
years experience in the test arena.
"I met Anil bhai (elder brother) for the first time. He told
me a lot of things which I will try and implement," he said
before the first test in Nagpur.
"My strong point is line and length. I'm not a big turner of
the ball, but I can bowl with a little variation."
Chawla, who bats left-handed, hogged media headlines during
last year's Challenger Trophy domestic one-day tournament final
after dismissing India players Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh
and Mahendra Dhoni.
He bowled Tendulkar with a googly, had Yuvraj caught and
then had the explosive Dhoni stumped.
"The Challenger series was a good experience," he said.
"It's the dream of every bowler to bowl to Sachin. To get him
out was very special."
He lifted unheralded Uttar Pradesh to their maiden Ranji
Trophy title in February, claiming five first innings wickets
against Bengal.
Chawla was then rushed straight to the under-19 World Cup in
Colombo where he grabbed four for eight and top-scored with 25
in a low-scoring final defeat of Pakistan.
There is no shortage of former greats ready to praise
Chawla, with former spinner Bishan Singh Bedi joining his fan
club.
CLEAN ACTION
"He is pretty promising," he told Reuters. "He has got a
very nice and clean action."
"He is a young and fit man and has got the right break at
the right time," added Bedi, a member of India's famed spin
quartet of the 1970's.
"He needs to be himself and not keep any negative thoughts.
"He should believe he has been picked for India on merit."
However, ex-India leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan warned
against hype.
"We all have to realise he is only a potential, not yet a
full product," he told Reuters.
"We should not see him as someone like Tendulkar, to come
and perform miracles," he said.
Sivaramakrishnan himself was hailed as a future bowling
great on his India debut as a 17-year-old in 1983, but faded
away after playing nine tests and 16 one-day internationals.
Now a television commentator, he said Chawla would come
under pressure from the millions of demanding Indian cricket
fans.
"Let us go easy on the youngster," he said. "Let him learn
the tricks of the trade from the sheer experience of sharing the
dressing room with people like Kumble and Tendulkar.
"I'm sure someone as shrewd as (coach) Greg Chappell would
know how to handle the mental aspect.
"Chawla must have a big heart as a leg spinner," he said.
"He should treat every match, at whatever level, equally
important."
"He has the talent and the ability," Kumble added. "I'm sure
he will play for a long time."