South Africa's Simon Harmer celebrates a wicket during 1st Test vs India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. (PHOTO: BCCI)South African spinner Simon Harmer played the perfect puppet master when he had the India batters on a string during the second day of the Eden Gardens Test match on Saturday. With South Africa getting skittled out for 159 in their first innings, India had all ammunition to post a sizable lead but ended up just 30 runs ahead. The architect of their downfall was Harmer, a player who had made his return to the Proteas team in 2022 for the first time since signing a Kolpak deal with England County club Essex in 2016. That deal had effectively ruled him out from getting selected for South Africa for the duration of the contract. With the advent of Brexit, the rule was ended in English cricket and Harmer became eligible for selection for his country again.
Since coming back, Harmer has been on a tear, most recently in South Africa’s 1-1 Test series draw against Pakistan where he snapped up 5 wickets in the first match in a losing effort before taking 8 in the second match, 6 of which came in the second innings.
After the day’s play in Kolkata, Harmer opened up about finding his way back to the national side.
“The reason I wasn’t involved with international cricket, one because I wasn’t good enough at that time and I didn’t force the selectors to select me and I signed the Kolpak deal which means I couldn’t play for South Africa anymore. I have always had a desire to compete at the highest stage and level which is international cricket. And I have always wanted to come back to India after the experience in 2015. I think as a finger spinner, you need to add strings to your bowling and the character that I am, I am always trying to push myself and be better. So, I think I am my fiercest competitor and my harshest critic,” he said to reporters after the end of the second day’s play in Kolkata.
“In 2015 when I was dropped from the national side, that was when I realized I wasn’t good enough. I came back to India in 2016 to work with Umesh Patwal in Mumbai and I think I have discovered a lot about spin bowling that I didn’t know and that was probably the point of my career that gave me an ambition to get better and develop and become a decent spinner
The spinner took 4 wickets at Eden vs India on Saturday but this wasn’t his first foray into the country. Harmer had played in the 2014/15 series against the Indians as well, chipping in with 5 wickets in the first Test at Mohali and 5 in the 3rd Test at Nagpur. But his exploits were overshadowed by a marauding Ravichandran Ashwin who took 31 wickets across 4 tests in the series, including a 7-wicket haul in the 2nd innings of the Nagpur Test.
Reflecting on the series, Harmer pointed out the difference in his outlook in 2014/15 where he put more pressure on himself to compete with Ashwin’s almost mythical bowling.
“2015, I was quite new to Test cricket and Ravi Ashwin was bowling like a jet and I think he took close to 40 wickets in that series. The expectation that I needed to do the same and dealing with that and putting myself in even more pressure. Now, I think I am a lot more confident in my ability. And I don’t have as many doubts that I had back then. I was fighting for a place in the team whereas now I feel like I have the skillset to compete. Whether or not it goes my way is sometimes the luck of the draw but as long as I can go back and say I put balls in the right areas, I can be happy with that. I am obviously a lot more experienced since the last time I was here,” the 36-year-old said.
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