South African coach Russell Domingo has predicted a bright future for left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj and has also stated that Maharaj is going to be the best spinner South Africa ever had.
Former captain Shaun Pollock is of the opinion that Maharaj’s best is yet to come. Despite the Proteas suffering a 3-1 series loss at the hands of England, the performance of Maharaj was a bright spot for the visitors, as he finished with 17 wickets at an average of 30.
Maharaj is less than a year into his international career after making his debut against Australia at Perth last year, but he has already shown signs of maturity and prominence which has made Domingo feel that he might go on to become the best slow bowler the Proteas ever had. It is way too early to comment on this, however, seeing how things have panned out in the recent past, Domingo’s words cannot be blown away.
“I think Keshav is going to be the best spinner South Africa’s ever had. He’s fantastic, think of the roles he can fulfil. He’s a fantastic young bowler,” Domingo said.
While the Proteas have the history of producing great batsmen and fast bowlers but when it comes to quality spinners they have fallen Including the pre apartheid era, South Africa have had produced only 15 spinners and out of which only four has bagged more than 100 wickets. The list includes Hugh Tayfield, Paul Adams, Nicky Boje and Paul Harris and now Maharaj is also in the contention to break into this list.
Since South Africa’s re-entry to Test cricket, none of the spinners have played more than 50 Tests. Maharaj is the 5th spinner after Paul Harris to make debut for South Africa. In between Imran Tahir, Dane Piedt, Simon Harmer and Tabraiz Shamsi have also made their debuts with only Tahir among this quartet to play more than 10 Tests.
While Pollock didn’t declare Maharaj as the best ever, he was excited with what he has seen till now and hopes that the spinner gets more chance playing in spin friendly conditions.
“He’s consistent, he’s accurate, he’s getting the ball to spin and he has been a real find for us,” Pollock was quoted by the SkySports.
“We’ve tried three or four different options over a period of four or five years and finally we’ve been able to settle on someone who has really done well. You just have to look at his stats to see what he has achieved in the first part of his career – he’s been really, really impressive.
“His major strength is just his accuracy, he’s played on some surfaces that have offered him assistance but I think the best for him is yet to come. When you take him to the subcontinent on those Indian wickets that are really turning, he’ll be a big handful,” Pollock concluded.