In an age of mystery spin and match-up management, Keshav Maharaj is showing how classical craft can still thrive in short-form cricket, writes Naman Agarwal.
If there’s a wicket to perfectly sum up Keshav Maharaj, the white-ball bowler, it would be Jacob Bethell’s on Tuesday.
It was bowled at 83 kph - a slow, loopy drifter from a left-arm orthodox bowling over the wicket, into the hitting arc of a dynamic left-hander who is set to become the youngest T20I captain for England. If the usual script were to be followed, that ball should have sailed over mid-wicket. Yet, Bethell was caught. Not slogging on the boundary line, but at slip, deceived by the drift and dip through the air.
In an era where bowling variations are popping up every other day, tussling with batters’ ever-growing intent, Maharaj stands out as a traditional spinner, one of the rare ones to still succeed in today’s limited-overs cricket.
His stock delivery is his biggest weapon, irrespective of format, opposition, or matchup, and he dismisses as many batters on defence as he does when they are taking him on. Even at Headingley, none of the four wickets he took came off overly attacking shots. Bethell was caught edging a cover drive, Will Jacks handed a return catch off a leading edge, and Adil Rashid and Sonny Baker missed straight ones to be lbw and bowled respectively.
Already equal with Maheesh Theekshana at the top of the ODI bowling rankings, Maharaj’s 4-22 catapulted him 31 points clear of the Sri Lankan to become the sole owner of the crown. The first time Maharaj went to the top of the ODI rankings was during the 2023 World Cup, in November. In the 22 months since, he has never been out of the top five, and only ever been out of the top three for a period of less than a month.
And yet, strangely, he’d not be the usual name to come to mind when you think of the best ODI bowlers currently.
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How good is Keshav Maharaj?
Maharaj only became a regular in the South African ODI side in 2021. In the five years since, he has picked up 61 wickets in 45 games at 28.29. His economy of 4.52 is the most eye-catching metric. Rashid Khan is the only spinner to have taken more wickets than him at a better economy rate in this period, but the Afghan maestro has also played a larger share of his matches against weaker sides.
If you only consider ODIs against India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan since the start of 2021, Maharaj (50 wickets at 25.82 & 4.51) is the third-highest wicket-taker after Adam Zampa and Kuldeep Yadav. The only bowler to have both a better average and economy rate against these oppositions in this period is Ravindra Jadeja (25.34 & 4.34), but he has taken 18 fewer wickets.
The main argument that goes against classical finger-spinners who don’t have a lot of tricks up their sleeve in white-ball cricket is that they become one-dimensional, and need to be managed based on in-game matchups. We often see frontline spinners not bowling their overs if a ‘negative matchup’ is at the crease. That theory doesn’t seem to affect Maharaj. Since 2021, he has averaged 27.4 against left-handers compared to 28 against right, and conceded at almost identical rates - 4.47 vs 4.43 - both outstanding.
While his success in ODIs has clearly been greater, Maharaj also quietly built a solid T20I career in the last four years, playing as the frontline spinner across two T20 World Cups. From 39 T20Is, Maharaj has picked up 38 wickets while conceding 7.33 runs per over. In this period, he also got an IPL gig, playing for Rajasthan Royals, and has been a consistent performer for Durban Super Giants at the SA20. His overall T20 career economy rate reads just 6.99. Only 20 spinners have taken as many T20 wickets as him (162) at an economy rate under seven.
What makes him so good?
South Africa’s most successful Test spinner, Maharaj always harboured ambitions of being an all-format player.
“He has always been someone who wants to be a part of the team in all three formats. I know how disappointed he was when he couldn't make it to the 2019 50-over World Cup in England,” Prasanna Agoram, former South Africa analyst who worked closely with Maharaj during his time with the national side, tells Wisden.com.
When he finally got the chance in 2023, after miraculously recovering from a ruptured Achilles sooner than expected, Maharaj made the most of it, claiming 15 wickets from 10 matches at 24.66.
Prasanna says Maharaj uses data and analysis to his advantage extensively. “He used to fondly come and talk to me regarding his technique, regarding how to get the batsman out, what lengths to bowl on a particular wicket, what field to set, what is an attacking mindset in a particular venue like Perth, and how it differs from a venue like say Hyderabad. He is an astute learner and he used to spend a lot of time there (meeting rooms).
“[Some of] the most important things he would see are how the batter steps down the track, does he step through the line or against the line, how close he gets to the pitch of the ball. When someone is playing a flat sweep like Younis Khan, where does his front foot go? And someone [who] plays a slog sweep, what does he do? What is their initial movement? Whether there is any chance he can pick it up and know that it's going to be a predetermined slog sweep or reverse? He studies the footage more than anyone.”
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For someone with not a lot of variations, one would expect Maharaj to be experimental with his bowling speeds. But he is quite subtle about that as well, as Prasanna explains.
“We can see how well he'll be using his crease and varying his trajectory. Maharaj is someone who varies his trajectory at a closer pace [range] of five to six kilometers. You can see someone who bowls at an average speed of 87 [kph] sometimes comes up with a delivery that is 100 kph. But with someone like Maharaj, it's very difficult to find the speed variation because it doesn't really go on the higher side and the lower side more than four or five kph.
“So he's always someone who will try and beat the batter in the air with the stock delivery. That has been his successful theory in all formats of the game.”
Unsurprisingly, none of Maharaj’s four wicket deliveries at Headingley were clocked above 90 kph.
In an era where spinners are adding more and more variations to their armoury without really perfecting any one of them, trying to hide in disguise, Maharaj has shown that he is willing to master one craft and hide in plain sight, doing so successfully. His adherence to the old-school virtues of spin-bowling, when challenging the norm has become the new norm, feels like a form of rebellion in itself.
“He takes it hard on himself. That is the reason why he has gotten better and better and better,” Prasanna says, bringing his success down to the very basic essence that binds most successful athletes - work ethic. “He never gets satisfied with any of his performances. When he got that nine wicket haul against Sri Lanka, 9-129 (in 2018), I gave him a hug and said, ‘I'm proud of you.’ Anyone would have had a big smile and would have felt it was the day of their life. But the man comes and tells me, ‘I missed out on one more wicket. More people would have been talking about me had I taken 10 out of 10 rather than nine out of 10. I think I can improve.’ This is kind of the mindset he has got.”
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At 35, Maharaj might not have a very long career ahead of him. He was recently dropped from the T20I squad for the Australia series before earning a recall for the England tour, indicating South Africa may be planning to phase him out of the format in search of more all-round options. With ODIs not being a frequent occurrence, he could become a Test specialist within a couple of years. It wouldn’t take away his white-ball excellence though, where he has succeeded using methods many assumed were obsolete, but clearly aren’t.
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