Wherever he goes, Arshdeep Singh carries the red ball in his kit bag. He doesn’t know when or where the opportunity will come, but he prefers to have it with him and practise whenever he can.
It has been four years since he made his white-ball debut for India, and nearly eight since his first-class debut. Yet despite being an integral part of India’s white-ball squads, thanks to his ability to move the ball both ways, the Test cap still looks distant for the left-arm seamer.
There was a moment, during the last England tour, when Arshdeep came close to making his Test debut. During the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the Indian team management was impressed enough by his work in the nets that they considered including him in the XI, before an injury ended his tour.
If he is fit and makes North Zone’s XI for the Duleep Trophy semi-final against South Zone starting Sunday, it will be the first time he plays back-to-back long-format matches since October 2024. Before North Zone’s 52-run win over West Zone on Wednesday, in which Arshdeep played, his last red-ball appearance had also come in last year’s Duleep Trophy. In the 2024-25 season, he played four red-ball fixtures, and international white-ball commitments have left him little room to build a case for a Test spot since.
“I’ve been saying that since day one, as a player when you start playing, the goal is always to represent India, be it any format. And I’m no exception, I also want to play all three formats and very rarely do I get a chance to play red ball cricket. This was a chance and I just wanted to showcase my skill set and just see how many overs I can bowl and nice to get the win as well,” Arshdeep said.
Arshdeep Singh in action during a practice session. (PTI)
On a pitch offering maximum assistance to the spinners, Arshdeep finished with only four wickets to his name, but it was hard to miss how he made the new ball talk. Even with the old ball, he worked at his angles, trying to extract something from the surface. Still, unlike in white-ball cricket, making a real impact with the red ball remains a work in progress for him, likely down to how few red-ball games he actually plays.
“I mean, every player is eager to play all the formats, but when the time is right, it will come eventually. Red ball has that beauty of giving you a chance again, and if you feel you’re not in the game in the first spell, there’s always a chance to come back and take wickets in the second spell, and you’re always in the game. You always have a chance to prove and change the game by delivering for the team,” he said, after North Zone’s win, wrapped up in half an hour on the final day, with West Zone’s last three wickets barely troubling them.
Spinners dominated the game overall, though Tushar Deshpande made early inroads on the opening day. For North, beyond Arshdeep, it was Anshul Kamboj who caused the most problems, with a steady line and length that Arshdeep himself often lacked. Since Jayden Unadkat played the two Tests in West Indies in 2023, India haven’t fielded a single left-arm seamer in their XI, and their hesitation to turn to Arshdeep is itself a sign of where he stands in the race for a Test cap. “I mean the message is to perform wherever you get a chance and just keep delivering, and when the time is right, you will get your chance,” is how Arshdeep describes the message he’s received from the Indian team management.
It isn’t as if India have written him off as a white-ball specialist. In 2023, he was sent to county cricket, playing five matches for Kent. Even there, Arshdeep showed a different side to his game. When Musheer Khan was frustrating North Zone’s bowlers in the first innings here, Arshdeep, beyond varying his angles, kept a few fielders positioned in front of the batsman’s eyeline while bowling from around the wicket. It played on Musheer’s mind, and he eventually nicked one behind to the keeper.
“As you all saw, there was nothing for seamers in that wicket. But I just wanted to play with his mind, and he was playing very defensively. So, we just wanted the fielders to be in front of his eyes and let him think that we are doing something different, but we kept hitting the same line, same lengths, and he pushed at one and got out. So, on wickets like this, you just have to play with the mind of the batter as well, when there is not much on offer, and sometimes you get success, sometimes you get hit for a six across the line as well. So, you’ve got to take both, and just keep trying,” he explains.
Against South Zone in the semi-final, the red ball comes back out of the kit bag again, for one more match, before it likely goes back in.
Brief scores: North Zone 251 & 222 (Ayush Badoni 50, Nishant Sindhu 44; Tanush Kotian 4/46, Sams Mulani 4/78) bt West Zone 187 & 234 (Musheer Khan 96, Ruturaj Gaikwad 66; Abid Mushtaq 4/60).