Laxman Sivaramakrishnan understands the hype and excitement around left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who had figures of 2 for 38 from 13 overs as Sri Lanka slipped to 146 for 5 in their first innings, half an hour into the second session on Day 3 at Galle.“He is a throwback to old school, the Indian spinner one got to witness in the 1970s and 1980s,” he tells The Indian Express. While much of the focus on Suthar has been on his release position, where the seam is angled perfectly toward first slip, the ball dipping and drifting before it reaches the batsman, Sivaramakrishnan says there is plenty more in the spinner that makes him complete.LIVE: IND vs SL 1st Test Day 3From the time Suthar burst onto the domestic circuit, he has been earmarked as the one to carry India’s spin legacy forward. In his brief Test career so far, the 24-year-old has shown plenty of promise to live up to that. On Day 3 at Galle, with India needing quick wickets for a good chance at chasing a win with bad weather around, he struck with his first delivery, removing the experienced Dinesh Chandimal with a ball that angled in, made the batsman play the angle, then spun just enough to take his glove on the way to Rishabh Pant’s hands. Throughout the day, he kept posing questions to the hosts.While the seam position has remained the talking point, according to Sivaramakrishnan it’s what happens before that which makes Suthar special. “You watch him just before he releases the ball. There is a rockback catapult, which you don’t see in spinners these days. You saw it with Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan, but these days spinners don’t do it because they rush through with their stride,” Sivaramakrishnan tells The Indian Express.Having taken to coaching in Chennai and Bengaluru, Sivaramakrishnan knows Suthar is a rarity. There are plenty of left-arm spinners on the domestic circuit, but few have caught the eye like Suthar has. He isn’t one with many variations in his armoury, sticking mostly to conventional methods and maximum revs on the ball. But watch him closely, and there are variations. “He mostly bowls with a pronounced seam, and when he slips in the scrambled seam, you are creating doubts into the minds of batsmen. If you keep landing with a pronounced seam, batsmen can pick you after a point. But when he is mixing it, then you bring guesswork into the batsmen,” the former India spinner says. Manav Suthar struck with his first delivery in the Galle Test on Monday. (CREIMAS)At Galle, across the last 10 Tests, the average turn on offer on Day 3 has been 4.23 degrees. Suthar, despite being a finger spinner, was managing to get 6. With the pitch dry beneath the grass, conditions worked in his favour. “His delivery stride is short, which means he has got the right balance, and more importantly the ideal hip drive that allows wonderful transfer of weight from back leg to front leg,” he says.A year ago, when Suthar arrived at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence ahead of the A series against South Africa, something was off in his bowling. With a long delivery stride, he hadn’t been the same bowler, struggling with control and balance, which kept him out of the Duleep Trophy and three matches for India A. It took him only three sessions to get the delivery stride right, and with it, his release point.Story continues below this adALSO READ | Can’t get a game in IPL but picked for India in Tests, the Manav Suthar story“Suthar isn’t rushing through. He is taking his time, which means he knows where to land the delivery. And that rockback means, even if the batsman makes any late adjustments, he still has enough time to deceive him. And since his hip drive is smooth, his release point is higher. When your normal release point is high, it means your deliveries are arriving from above the eyeline of the batsman. It is classic old school,” Sivaramakrishnan explains.What happens once Suthar releases the ball is the rest of the story. “Since his seam is pronounced, he will get turn, and because of the release point, there is extra bounce. Also, watch him bowl: he gets closer to the crease, which you don’t see often with spinners. And when he bowls, he is on one leg, which again means the balance is perfect. When there is total sync between back leg and front leg, you are in control of the line and length. What happens before he delivers has a direct correlation to what happens when he releases the ball,” Sivaramakrishnan adds.After Mohammed Siraj provided the early breakthrough in the first over, despite Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav in the mix, it was Suthar that Shubman Gill turned to. On a Sri Lanka pitch where high pace offers little reward, he bowled at the right speed, in the mid-80s, getting enough bite off the surface as India put the hosts in trouble early on.