IPL opener lit up by Mayank Markande’s googlies

Mumbai Indians’ talent scouts must be delighted that Punjab’s tyro leg-spinner Mayanak Markande made the cut straight away in the first match of IPL’s season 11 and had everybody’s attention riveted on him.

MI’s talent scouts, who travel during the six-month long domestic championship, spotted the 20-year-old from Bathinda while plying his trade in limited-over and Twenty20 matches for the State.

The rookie was seen in action in this year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy matches in Alur and also in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in Delhi and Kolkata.

MI refused to reveal the scout who spotted Markande, but the three-time winner has in Rahul Sanghvi, T.A. Sekhar, Abey Kuruvilla, Kiran More, Robin Singh and John Wright people who look for the unusual. The last named had spotted fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah before he made his IPL debut in 2013.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) would have found out something about Markande from Harbhajan Singh, but the youngster deployed the googly to good effect to defeat Ambati Rayudu, M.S. Dhoni and Deepak Chahar to make a grand first impression.

Bought at ₹20 lakh, Markande has already earned his place in the team ahead of Sri Lankan off-spinner Akila Dananjaya. Having firmed up to buy him, MI also did not make a strong bid for another leggie at the auction.

Leg-spin is a difficult art and the most successful have talked about the importance of being accurate.

MI coach Mahela Jayawardene said, “I thought he bowled brilliantly. We backed him when we saw him first at our camp. We knew that he was special... he came for two trial games for us, both him and [Rahul] Chahar. We backed our youngsters. We knew that this is the year we had to do that. The stadium was packed against CSK and he bowled well, I am pleased for him.”

Mahela added, “I think it is the accuracy. He is quite accurate and probably a bit different to a normal leg-spinner as well. The way he delivers the ball, the control (that) he has with his variations, and he is very confident for a guy who has not played much T20 cricket. His attitude is great and we want to back those guys, give them an opportunity and see what happens.”

MI insiders said even the likes of Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and others in the team found him extremely accurate and cunning during nets. Markande is supposed to have bowled well in the practice game at the Wankhede Stadium, a match that that was out of bounds for the media.

Markande became the 37th player to bowl leg-spin in the league. They have taken 719 wickets so far and MI has three of them. A small beginning, but MI is hopeful he will do a lot more in his career.