Nagpur - For over an hour into the Indian second innings, Imran Tahir waited for his turn to bowl.
With each passing over, the speculation mounted as to why Hashim Amla was holding him back for quite so long, in a situation so dire.
Amla is not the first captain to dither over Tahir. Graeme Smith, for all his experience and tactical nous, could never find a way to really get Tahir into the game – or keep him in the game, for that matter.
“I think the captain felt that Simon (Harmer) was bowling really well to the left-handers, and tried to get a left-hander out up front,” said coach Russell Domingo.
“Also with JP (Duminy), because the ball was turning away, I think Hash thought he could maybe do some damage, so maybe that was the reason,” he added.
It has almost got to the point of awkwardness now, and though Amla himself must know what his plans for Tahir are, it seems no one else does. In Mohali, when Tahir was held back on the final morning, and India added crucial runs, the question was first raised. Why wait on Tahir, especially when he is turning it as much as he has been in India?
“Immy has bowled well this series, and he bowled well again today, but we do know that he has the tendency, at times, to leak runs,” Domingo elaborated.
“Particularly when there are two batters who are set. So the captain probably felt, at that stage, he would go with the bowler who could give him a bit more control.”
And therein lies the difference between South Africa’s best spinner and India’s. They are different bowlers, of course, their disciplines having vastly different challenges. But Ravichandran Ashwin’s consistency has made him the player of this series, while Tahir’s reputation alone has made him a reluctant option to use spontaneously, even in tailor-made conditions.
It’s a crazy situation, and one that has left many observers wondering why you would pick a strike bowler at all, if you dare not use him too early? With five critical wickets to his name on Thursday, Tahir only added further intrigue to the sub-plot.
“I just want to thank my team and my captain for backing me,” he said of his second five-wicket haul in Test cricket. “As a spinner, in these conditions, you always want to be in the game. But I am happy with my role and whenever I get used.”
The “whenever” bit is proving trickiest for South Africa. In an ideal world, it would have been he, not Harmer, who opened the bowling in India’s second innings for South Africa. And bowled the most overs for South Africa in this series.
But, too often for the fine margins of Test cricket, Tahir has not proved to be the ideal choice. “Consistency,” Domingo pointed out, when asked of the difference between the two sides’ spinners.
“I think the Indian spinners have landed the ball more consistently than our spinners, and asked questions for a longer period of time. We have landed the ball in good areas for two or three overs, and they have landed the ball in good areas for eight or nine overs. That has been the difference.”
And that, in a nutshell, is why Tahir will continue to be a dilemma for Amla in tests. The magic he is capable of, the electricity that he produced on Thursday, is exactly what South Africa want from their spinner.
If they had that to rely on every test match, this series would surely still be alive, and the Proteas would be close to the perfect test outfit, with everyone fit and firing.
But, there are still too many load-shedding moments from Tahir, when he looks nothing like the prowling tiger who operates in white-ball cricket. “The key is to be consistent, and land in the same spot. I am still learning all the time, and I know I need to be more consistent,” he lamented.
It’s a shame, and one of the great mysteries of modern cricket, how his form can vary so drastically from ODIs to tests, and it refuses to go away. This tour was supposed to be his relaunch, his second coming. But the jury is still out on that one.
Cape Argus