IND vs SA: In the shadows of 2015, a different ending for Harmer

Simon Harmer had just bowled South Africa to a famous Test win against India at the Eden Gardens with his twin four-wicket hauls, an effort that earned him the Player of the Match award.

At the presentation ceremony, Harmer was quick to recall his first tour to India a decade ago. “I have been here before, and it was a dark place.”

In those few words, Harmer captured a phase of his life marked by crippling self-doubt and the long, often bruising journey he has taken since.

The 2015 tour he referred to was a chastening experience for South Africa. India dominated throughout, sealing the series 3-0.

For Harmer, then in the early days of his international career, the blow landed personally as well as professionally.

To his credit, he claimed respectable five-wicket match hauls in both Tests he played. But that achievement felt insignificant beside the 31 wickets taken by R Ashwin, whom Harmer had, to his detriment, chosen as his yardstick.

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“I was quite new to Test cricket, and Ravichandran Ashwin was bowling like a jet. It was the expectation that I needed to do the same and deal with that, and putting myself under even more pressure,” Harmer said during the Kolkata Test.

The failure in India cut deep. “I’m my harshest critic. In 2015, when I got dropped from the national side, that was when I realised that I wasn’t good enough.”

With his career at a crossroads, Harmer decided the only option was to start over. He returned to India in 2016 to work with coach Umesh Patwal at his academy in Mumbai.

“I discovered a lot about spin bowling that I didn’t know. That was the point in my career that gave me the ammunition to get better and develop and become a decent spinner,” Harmer said.

He remembers that fortnight with Patwal as the most frustrating of his life. “Basically, everything I thought I knew about spin bowling, he laughed at.”

But having committed to the process, Harmer pushed through. The South African soldiered through the draining drills, his persistence leaving a strong impression on Patwal.

“He’s not a giving-up guy,” Patwal told PTI. “He looked frustrated in the first couple of days. But he kept at it. He wanted to change his life. [So he] kept doing it. It was rigorous. But he never gave up.”

Even with a new approach, Harmer recognised that a return to the South African setup remained unlikely.

“I wasn’t good enough at the time [in 2016]. I didn’t force the selectors to select me. And I signed a Kolpak deal [with Essex], which meant that I couldn’t play for South Africa.”

Freed from expectation and in full command of his craft, Harmer flourished. Since his county debut with Essex, no player has taken more First-Class wickets worldwide (691).

Harmer is also one of only two bowlers to have 1000 First-Class wickets this century, the other being England’s James Anderson (1143).

His international return, though, remained blocked by the nearly decade-long Kolpak deal. Brexit and the collapse of the Kolpak system that followed finally reopened the door. In 2022, Harmer played for the Proteas again.

But with South Africa rarely using more than one spinner at home, and Keshav Maharaj holding that role, Harmer waited on the fringes. His eagerness was matched by coach Shukri Conrad.

“When Simon called me up a few months ago and he said he’s desperate to play for South Africa again, I was more desperate to have him back,” Conrad said at the post-match press conference in Kolkata.

Harmer finally got his opening in Pakistan last month. He made it count, taking 13 wickets in two Tests, including a six-wicket haul in Rawalpindi that helped South Africa level the series.

A month later came his outing in Kolkata, a display of unerring off-spin, backed by the self-belief he had earned the hard way.

“I’ve always had the desire to compete on the highest stage. And I’ve always wanted to come back to India after the experience of 2015. I’m a lot more confident in my ability. I don’t have as many doubts as I did [in 2015]. I was fighting for a place in the team then, whereas now I feel I have the skillset to compete,” Harmer said.

At the Eden Gardens, he was subtle in his execution, resisting the temptation to overwork a pitch already offering assistance. With a slick action and high arm release, he persisted with a straightish line, constantly threatening both edges and the stumps.

“Sometimes you get onto turning pitches, and it’s turning, and you’re just trying to turn it more and more. Sometimes the skill lies in bowling a ball that doesn’t turn much on a pitch that is turning.”

Harmer delivered 176 balls in the Kolkata Test. According to Cricviz, 172 were his stock off break.

Of the only four variation deliveries, two were arm balls, saved for what became the contest of the match.

After Marco Jansen’s double strike rattled India early in its 124-run chase, and with Shubman Gill unavailable due to injury, the responsibility fell squarely on Rishabh Pant.

But Pant was pinned down by Harmer in a 10-ball spell that showcased the full range of his craft.

He shifted pace, length, and flight to shut down Pant’s scoring options.

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The two arm balls delivered around the wicket then skidded in at Pant’s stumps with real menace. The Indian batter managed to bring his bat down in time on both occasions.

But Harmer now controlled the battle. Immediately after the second arm ball, the 36-year-old floated a slower, fuller delivery that Pant chipped back tamely. India slipped to 38 for four. The rest followed swiftly.

That dismissal also revealed his broader plan to force India’s batters onto the front foot.

“You want to be testing batters on the front foot. If you allow them time to go back, it allows them to adjust and play the turn off the pitch. Trying to test batters on the front foot, testing their front foot defence, allows the ball to spin past the bat and brings in both edges. And then you’re trying to get one not to turn to try and bring in lbw. You need to be fuller rather than shorter on that pitch,” Harmer explained.

“Whether or not it goes my way is sometimes the luck of the draw, but as long as I can look back and say that I put a good amount of balls in the right area, then I can be happy with that,” he added.

Harmer’s approach to bowling mirrors the way he has navigated the challenges cricket has thrown at him over the last decade: by doing the right thing, over and over again.

Published on Nov 19, 2025