Former England spinner Graeme Swann has lavished praise on Manav Suthar’s spell after India registered a massive win of an innings and 300 runs against Afghanistan at New Chandigarh on Monday. This is India’s biggest Test win as they dominated in all three departments.

Suthar, who was making his debut, returned with impressive figures of 6-33 in the first innings as he breathed down the neck of the Afghan batters. The left-arm orthodox spinner accounted for Abdul Malik, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rahmat Shah, Afsar Zazai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, and Mohammad Saleem Safi. 

Thus, he became the second Indian bowler in this century to take five wickets on Test debut. Furthermore, Suthar bagged one more wicket in the second essay and was awarded Player of the Match.

“The instinct of coming in and bowling so well, he doesn’t bat as well as Jadeja, maybe, but he can bat, and he has got a first-class hundred, it starts to throw up these really interesting selection issues, and he is definitely one for the future,” Graeme Swann said on Star Sports.

Swann said Suthar would be able to replace Ravindra Jadeja once the latter decides to call time on his career.

“When Jadeja decides that it’s time, he just walks into the team as the left-arm spinner. Just like (Vaibhav) Suryavanshi in the one-day game, you think, should he be in on merit anyway, because that performance was one of a world-class spinner? It wasn’t just a guy playing his first Test. Just trust me on that, he is born to play Test cricket,” he added.

On the other hand, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar was impressed with Suthar’s attitude on the ground.

“Very impressed with his attitude. We don’t know how good he is going to be as a batter, but whatever little we saw just shows his great commitment to the team. He could have said I am a newcomer, and if we have to go for runs, let it be done by the batter at the other end, but he didn’t do that,” he said.

India will next take on Afghanistan in three ODIs, starting Saturday.