In his place of birth, Ajaz Patel joins Kumble and Laker in exclusive 10-for club

When Anil Kumble took all 10 wickets in an innings in the Delhi Test against Pakistan in 1999, Ajaz Patel was 10 years old. That may or may not have been propitious, but on a day the Mumbai-born New Zealand left-arm spinner became the first man since Kumble, and only the third since England’s Jim Laker in 1956, to achieve the magical mark at Wankhede Stadium, it was hard not to look at such happy statistical quirks.

On Saturday morning, the air of expectation kept building at Wankhede as Ajaz’s wicket tally kept getting tantalisingly closer to double digits. When Jayant Yadav swung him straight to long-off to become his ninth victim, the tenth suddenly seemed almost inevitable with four balls to go in Ajaz’s 48th over.

And as Mohammed Siraj mishit the fifth ball of the over high in the air, the roar across the ground told you that fans wanted this catch taken. As the ball settled into Rachin Ravindra’s hands at mid-on, Ajaz was engulfed by team-mates, and the crowd cheered louder.

He had bowled 47.5 of 109.5 overs in the innings, and looked the only bowler likely to strike.

Earlier, the crowd had gone silent as always whenever an Indian wicket had fallen, but as the end of the innings approached, they realised that history was about to be made. Wankhede was moved enough to give Ajaz a standing ovation, as did spinning great R Ashwin from the Indian dressing room.

Kumble tweeted, “Welcome to the club #AjazPatel!”

(PTI Photo/Shashank Parade)

“Honestly, it’s surreal and pretty special. The stars have aligned for me to do it in Mumbai,” Patel said after his feat. “Unfortunately my family is not here due to Covid. I’m in illustrious company with Kumble Sir.”

Bowlers have taken eight wickets in a Test innings on 12 occasions in India, and four of those hauls have belonged to visitors. Nine-fors have been taken only thrice, and none of them have come from visiting bowlers. For Ajaz then to take only the third ten-for ever in the history of Test cricket against the country of his birth in the city of his birth has to belong to the rarest of rare category.

Ajaz was only about eight when his family left for New Zealand. He began as a fast bowler. He has said he had to learn “from scratch” under another New Zealand spinner of Indian origin, Dipak Patel.

(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

The doors to the national team, however, did not open for Ajaz until he was past 30. And instantly, he took five wickets on debut against Pakistan in 2018.

Coming into the Wankhede match, in another of those delightful quirks, Ajaz had played exactly 10 Test matches. He’d had an unimpressive outing in the first Test in Kanpur.

For a spinner to take out Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli cheaply takes some doing, for him to dismiss them for ducks in the same over is incredible. Ajaz would go on to repeat this in an over twice on Day Two.

Asked which scalp out of the 10 was special, Ajaz said, “Not anyone in particular. Just trying to be repetitive and ask questions of batters.” At Wankhede, all ten of them could not answer Ajaz’s questions convincingly.