Mitchell Santner earned the nickname "Flatline" at Northern Districts, his domestic team, for his cool and relaxed demeanour. On the eve of the second Test against India in Pune, he stayed true to his nickname and warmed up with a casual kickabout before wheeling away with his left-arm fingerspin at the nets. There was an air of calmness around him even when he was engaging in some violent T20-style range-hitting towards the end of New Zealand's training session.
There were strong hints that Santner would replace one of New Zealand's seamers on a slow, dry pitch in Pune. He would've been expected to do a job, even though he is only a sporadic presence in the Test team, pushed to the sidelines at home where conditions limit his skill. It might be fair to say now that he exceeded those expectations. "Flatline" peaked on Friday with a seven-wicket haul, which included a clean bowled of Virat Kohli (with a low full-toss).
After going wide of the crease from left-arm around, Santner, who had originally started the second day by darting the ball into the surface, slowed his pace down to 82.6kph and had Kohli missing a swipe across the line. Kohli was shocked, as were Santner and more than 20,000 fans in Pune.
"Yeah, I think I was in more of a shock getting Kohli out with a full-toss, he doesn't usually miss those," Santner said. "I think it was slightly slower through the air, I just tried to change it up a little bit but usually if you bowl those they go for six so, but yeah, I think there was obviously a little bit there which was nice and I think the change in pace was key today and the Indian spinners bowled pretty good areas with the change in pace."
There's a chance that Santner might not have played this game had offspin-bowling allrounder Michael Bracewell been available for selection. Before the Pune Test, Santner had a bowling average of 42.16 and a strike rate of 91.6. He had taken some tap in the Tests against Sri Lanka in Galle and had never picked up a four-wicket haul in Test cricket, let alone a five-for. However, with a rough spot to work with, Santner kept hitting it with cunning pace variations and let the Pune pitch do the rest. He came away with 7 for 53, helping New Zealand earn a decisive first-innings lead of 103.
In one over, Santner was able to hike it up to 95kph from around 75kph. Among current fingerspinners, hardly anyone varies their pace as much as he does.
"I tend to do that a lot in white-ball cricket - change the pace," Santner said. "I think today we kind of spoke about that kind of just under 90 kph [speed]. [It] looked like it was spinning and then for a period there when you went over the top it was actually bouncing a lot so we spoke about maybe going a little bit slower. But I just think at the start it was [about] kind of [bowling] fast into it and then it [the pace] kind of changed as the day went on with the pitch and I think Washi [Washington Sundar] did that as well; he did that very well."
Santner kept attacking the stumps in India's first innings - six of his seven wickets were bowled or lbw - and he hopes to keep it just as simple in the final innings when the conditions could be even more extreme.
"So, going into the next innings…trying to keep the stumps in play and hope for something similar and I think the India will probably come out maybe more aggressive and try and put us on the back foot but, you know, there's still a job to do with the bat. Obviously the more runs we get now it makes our job with the ball a little bit easier."
Santner also credited Rangana Herath, the former Sri Lanka left-arm fingerspinner who is currently New Zealand's spin-bowling coach, for sharing his inside knowledge on subcontinent conditions.
"Yeah, Rangana been really good," Santner said. "Obviously in Sri Lanka and now here he's. He took wickets all over the place and yeah he was a master of that kind of change of pace and guile and working with him as a spin-bowling unit has been good, especially in conditions which are not too similar to back home."
After Santner bagged seven on Friday, he had his team-mates ruffling his hair in joy. He could give his mates and New Zealand more joy on Saturday by wrapping up their first-ever Test series win in India.