Amol Muzumdar knows what it means to be out of favour. He spent 171 first-class matches waiting for an international call-up that never arrived, hitting 11 677 runs at an average of 48.13. But this Indian professional could just fix Stiaan van Zyl’s batting woes and aid his chances for an international recall when a group of eight South African spinners and six batsmen attend a spin bowling course in Mumbai from May 14 to 21.
Van Zyl and Dane Vilas, senior batsmen of the Cape Cobras, and GF Linde and Dane Piedt, slow bowlers of the Cape champions, will be part of the group of 14 South African players to attend the spinning course in May in India.
Piedt, South Africa’s premier spinner in test cricket, says Linde is a tall slow bowler similar to the former South African orthodox left-arm spinner Claude Henderson. He possesses the height, the spin, the bounce and the batting abilities to excel. “He is just about 1000 wickets behind Claude,” added Piedt.
Henderson, the CSA spin bowling consultant, and HD Ackerman, the CSA batting consultant, will accompany the South African group to the spinning course. Ackerman and Muzumdar will work with the batsmen.
Van Zyl battled slightly in 2015 with the blade after scoring a century on test debut.
But spending time in India on the batting strips which benefited Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jedeja so much in the test series in 2015, could just be the magic potion that transforms Van Zyl’s fortunes.
Linde could benefit enormously from working with Henderson as well as the former Indian left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni.
Kulkarni represented India in three tests and 10 One Day Internationals as a slow bowler.
“I think one of the benefits from going on the spinning camp would be to learn about the processes and mind-set that is used to plan and execute the dismissal of a batsman,” said Piedt.
Piedt was an excellent debutant for South Africa, taking 8-152 in his maiden game for the Proteas.
His worst moment came in India in 2014 when he injured a shoulder which required surgery while representing the Cape Cobras in the Champions League.
But he overcame the rollercoaster rehabilitation process, gradually improved, forced his way back into the South African team and excelled at the back-end of the test series against England.
He also captured 39 wickets at an average of 22.33 in the Sunfoil Series in 2015/2016 and was the leading wicket-taker for the Cape Cobras.
Muzumdar was a prolific run-scorer at first-class level, but was never selected for India, who had stars of the quality of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid who kept him out of the elite team for longer than 15 years.