But what is not known of the debutant is that the left-arm spinner, likened to Ravindra Jadeja, started his cricketing journey as a batter, having enrolled himself in the cricket academy under the supervision of Dheeraj Sharma.

“I was quite fascinated by batting, and I used to bowl a bit. But batting was my favourite thing to do, and I started as a batter in the academy. Later, my coach (Dheeraj Sharma) saw my action and told me, 'You must become a bowler'. During my under-14 days, I used to bat, though my entire focus shifted towards bowling,” Suthar in an earlier conversation with this journalist.

Now a full-fledged left-arm spinner, the 23-year-old had shown great consistency with the ball on a day when the other Indian bowlers failed to have a similar impact. It was made possible due to Suthar’s long hours under the baking sun (50 degrees Celsius) in his hometown, Sri Ganganagar.

“As a bowler, everything should be right — body should be aligned, and the drive too should be correct, and bowling diagonally helped me. I used to bowl like 15-20 overs in the morning, and 20-25 overs in the evening when I was young. Because I enjoy bowling, I don't get bogged down by the heat,” he added.

Then came his experience of playing division cricket in Tamil Nadu, where he tussled against some of the best batters of spin, testing his own skills.

“I played like 7-8 matches, I got to learn a lot, I learnt how to remain patient across wickets because the conditions were different on different pitches. You have to play differently on different wickets, so I learnt a lot about planning. My focus was on giving my 100%, and I used that opportunity to learn a lot about my own game,” he added.

Suthar, as a normal debutant, had butterflies in his tummy, but it all disappeared in the first over, when he got rid of Afghanistan opener Abdul Malik. With that wicket, he became only the eighth bowler in India’s Test history to pick up a wicket in the first over in a debut Test.