Birthday special: Sairaj Bahutule – A fighter who became a giant of domestic cricket

Two Test matches and eight One-Day Internationals do not tell the complete story of Sairaj Bahutule who spent more than two decades in domestic cricket. Son of a former first-class cricketer, Vasant Bahutule, Sairaj opted the art of leg-spin. At 17, Sairaj survived a lethal car accident. He went into a coma and later recovered with a fractured femur and a crushed elbow. Most would have given up hope to pursue a career in sports but he still persisted.

Test and ODI debut

For someone of Sairaj Bahutule’s calibre in red-ball cricket, his two Test appearances in 2001 was never going to be enough to succeed at a higher level. But with the rise of Harbhajan Singh and the existence of Anil Kumble didn’t let any spinner storm into the India Test team while handling the Indian spin unit. Across the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons, Sairaj claimed as many as 114 wickets in just 23 first-class matches with as many as eight 5-wicket hauls.

A rich haul of 630 wickets & 6176 runs in First Class Cricket, this stalwart was one of the pillars of a dominant Mumbai side in the 90s & 2000s.
.
Also played for Maharshtra, Vidharbha & India, this wily legspinner & spunky lower order bat was the ultimate team man (1/3) pic.twitter.com/YcVZpnXEIw

— North Stand Gang – Wankhede (@NorthStandGang) January 6, 2020

In the same period, the all-rounder scored 810 runs with five fifties at a healthy average. The two brilliant seasons couldn’t see his comeback in the longer format but saw him playing an ODI during the 2003 Tri-series at home. It was his first ODI appearance in five years and turned out to be the last time he featured in the Indian colours. By the time he played his last professional game, he had scored close to 8000 runs and bagged more than 800 scalps.

Giant in domestic cricket

Sairaj Bahutule’s best obviously came for his home team Mumbai for whom he played 92 matches in first-class cricket scoring 3361 runs and claiming a total of 339 wickets. Bahutule was part of as many as seven Ranji Trophy titles for the Mumbai team. He played for Mumbai between 1991-92 and 2004-05 before moving to Maharashtra for a couple of seasons. Sairaj returned to Mumbai in the following two seasons and his final game for them turned out to be the 2008-09 Ranji final.

He went on to represent Assam later on for a couple of seasons and signed off his career in 2012-13 while playing for Vidarbha. In his 188-match first-class career, Sairaj Bahutule claimed 630 wickets alongside scoring over 6000 runs with the help of nine hundreds. The leg-spinner’s success in first-class cricket shadowed his limited-overs credentials as he had 197 wickets across 143 List A games alongside a hundred to his name.