Have to work on my accuracy as a left-arm spinner, says Delhi’s Mathur

Delhi's Sumit Mathur reflects on his Ranji Trophy season, aiming to improve accuracy and pace as a bowler.

A couple of weeks have passed since Delhi’s group-stage exit in the Ranji Trophy. It has given all-rounder Sumit Mathur adequate time to reflect on his first full season for the State team.

The 27-year-old left-arm spinner had a majestic start to his First Class career with nine wickets on debut against Odisha in the final game of the 2023-24 Ranji season, but a return of 10 wickets in five matches this time was perhaps a more realistic indicator of where his bowling stands.

Mathur fared better on the batting front, contributing 269 runs at 38.42 including a century and a fifty.

On tracks conducive to spin in Chandigarh and Rajkot, Mathur and his teammates were overshadowed by left-arm tweakers in the opposition. In Chandigarh, where Mathur managed four wickets, 20-year-old Nishunk Birla scalped six each in both innings to bowl his team to victory. In Rajkot, it was Ravindra Jadeja who teased and tormented the Delhi batters with 12 wickets in the match while Mathur went wicketless after two of his scalps were nullified due to overstepping.

“I bowled well overall, but the results are not always up to you. I have to improve my quality as a bowler. I need to become more accurate. On turning pitches, I felt I could’ve done better. On such pitches, you need to be accurate and stay patient,” Mathur told The Hindu.  

Having witnessed Jadeja go about his work during the game in Rajkot, Mathur also feels he needs to bowl quicker through the air. “If the pitches are slow, I also need to increase my pace. In that match against Saurashtra, I was bowling slower through the air. Batters had time to adjust. Jaddu bhai was bowling quick and didn’t give batters time to go back and play. So these are things that I need to work on,” he said.