Sleight of wrists: Simarjeet Singh's rise from hockey, MI and CSK to magic
If there indeed is a heaven and an expert sitting on a laptop, trying to connect people or things, they have got the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) match with Simarjeet Singh spot-on.
A franchise dressed in simplicity, that doesn't care about meetings, is big on individual planning, and promotes self-expression. A sincere pacer who doesn't talk much, has a brilliant sense of humor, loves setting up batters, runs like he's sauntering, and then lets his natural skill take over to shoot 150kph rockets.
All that for ₹20 lakh. Spot-on.
From the stick to the gloves
People love cricket. Simarjeet adores it.
That is why when his father, a hockey player, wanted his nine-year-old to take after him and join an academy, he refused. Instead, he took his brother's cricket gear and followed him to erstwhile cricketer Madan Lal's academy in South Delhi.
There were no specific aims, no start or end point.
"I was a wicketkeeper at the start, then a batter," he told Sportskeeda in a brief chat in Delhi on the sidelines of the Delhi Premier League (DPL) on Friday, September 6.
Who starts with wicketkeeping?!
"I don't know! Then I was a leg-spinner, then an off-spinner. I did everything! I started fast-bowling quite late. When my coach Madan Lal sir told me, '[Fast] ball bhi daal lo' (Try fast-bowling too now) it was only then that I started fast bowling," he added.
Then, there were no specific idols. Or, rather... too many of them.
"I used to watch a lot of matches, even the Ashes. From South Africa, [I idolised] Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Jacques Kallis. Then, Mitchell Johnson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee -- when he was young -- and then from India, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh. Bumrah bhaiya [as well, but he] has been there only recently," he said, pondering for more names, which would have come out if there wasn't a shortage of time.
It can seem haphazard until you realize that cricket's not just a competitive sport where nothing matters more than an ICC trophy or whether Virat Kohli should get a paternal leave. Cricket is also a fun game that most players get into as a pastime and spend the rest of their careers trying not to lose that spark.
Watching Simarjeet bowl brings you closer to that reality. There's not an inch of baggage in his run-up or action: six-foot tall figure, straight towards the stumps, the seam held upright, half-a-jump at the last minute, the ball sliding towards the batter off a slightly angled arm and a wrap of the wrist to generate skid.
It's not art. It's not a painting. It's a canvas with unlimited possibilities.
No wonder, then, that when people try to put Simarjeet in the context of what they have seen in the past and try to envisage a future for him, he's called the 'desi' version of a bowler who has often been considered matchless - Jofra Archer.
"I have seen one or two comments about it. He's also a legend. I can't compare myself to him," Simarjeet said.
He might not see it yet, but in IPL 2025, Simarjeet's five wickets - two against the Punjab Kings on his season debut and the entire Rajasthan Royals top-three later - came in the two most Archer-esque ways. Either the batters top-edged balls that bounced unexpectedly or they were rushed by the skid and got late on their shots.
But those are not the only arrows in Simarjeet's quiver. His outswing has proven lethal for many a batter in first-class cricket for Delhi, and, more recently, the high-flying East Delhi Riders' success in the DPL has been propelling by his yorkers and slower-ones, too, for an overall joint second-best 15 wickets in nine matches.
The wicket-taking range is as important for a bowler as the run-scoring range is for a batter and is an equally underrated aspect for both. Simarjeet combines that with stunning accuracy and a penchant to consistently hit hard lengths on the flattest of tracks, which shows in his small-sample-but-brilliant IPL economy rate of 8.63.
"I think you can call it consistent and defensive... but if your planning is good, then everyone would look consistent but if planning is faulty, then no one would seem consistent," Simarjeet said. "Flat tracks are everywhere nowadays. Even if you go to Australia, you'll find a lot of flat tracks there. As a bowler, you have to be a step ahead, think forward and plan everything. Planning needs to be for every batter and about what he will and won't do. If your planning is good, then the pitch doesn't matter, whether it's flat or helpful."
Unlike his supple wrists - which Simarjeet says he has been told is "natural" and "can't be developed" - you are not born with the nous to plan. And after just 36 first-class and List-A games plus 10 IPL appearances, Simarjeet can't claim that he has learned all this through his on-field experiences.
Rather, it's the knowledge he has acquired from all his time away from the field. That started in 2021 when Mumbai Indians signed the then 23-year-old Simarjeet as the injured Arjun Tendulkar's replacement for the UAE leg of that year's IPL.
"That was very helpful," he said. "(Jasprit) Bumrah bhai told me so many things at the time about how T20 cricket works, how players can adjust to it and what they can do. He helped me a lot in that. Zaheer sir was also there at the time, [he and] Shane Bond also helped me a lot. Rahul Sanghvi sir as well. There were a lot of people who helped me grow a lot as a T20 bowler and in understanding the format as a youngster."
CSK signed him in the auction the following year, although he hadn't got a game in the UAE. He debuted in the team's ninth match of the season when it had become clear that they wouldn't qualify for the playoffs.
He played six games on the trot and picked up four wickets at an average of 34.50. But, the following season, despite the franchise being short on pace resources, Simarjeet couldn't get a game because of injuries.
Losing more than a year of cricket just like that gave the impression that he was yet another young quick unable to manage his body. But Simarjeet clarified that he isn't injury-prone - his action remains unstained! - but just unlucky.
"One time, I got hit on the head by a ball and then another occasion, I slipped while walking. It's just bad luck and I can't do anything about it. In those moments, as a player, you think, "What's happening?!" But at that time, CSK and, as a coach, [Stephen] Fleming, gave that emotional support. He kept saying, 'You are good!'" he explained.
That time, all the way till IPL 2024, was spent under more experienced minds who leveled up the education he got at MI. Bowling coach DJ Bravo, who Simarjeet calls his era's "best T20 bowler in the world" taught him the nuances of death-bowling while consultant Eric Simons opened his mind to new possibilities.
"He (Simons) has been around T20 cricket for so long that he gives such ideas -- innovative things and not the traditional ones, how to use new ideas in T20 cricket... It was everything from variations to field positions. They teach you everything and then what you can do and can't do," Simarjeet said.
And the improvement wasn't just in the mindset. After Simarjeet's three-wicket haul against the Royals at a spin-friendly Chepauk pitch, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad revealed a telling fact in passing at the post-match press conference.
"I don't know what he is doing but in the pre-season we had, he was bowling at around 150[kph]," Gaikwad said.
In 2022, Simarjeet only occasionally bowled 140-145kph while mostly staying in the 135-137kph range. In 2024, he got at least 5kph quicker on average, which magically came to life during a few months of rehab. His bulk-up in the two years is visible but Simarjeet doesn't know exactly "what he was doing" either.
"You'll have to ask that from my trainer and physio," he said with a big chuckle. "Only they know how they did it! I think they treated me really well. I was injured for the last two years and thanks to them, I came out as an improved bowler. I am thankful to the CSK management for taking care of me and giving me so much attention during injury."
However, the effects of those injuries hadn't worn off completely.
The four matches he played at the end of the 2024 season came his way because CSK lost almost their entire frontline pace attack to forced unavailabilities. In two of them, he carved a niche for himself as a middle-overs enforcer, showed why he could be a starter in any 11, and how CSK could survive without Deepak Chahar.
But in the other two, he went wicketless and conceded 79 runs in five overs. Some batters figured out his plans and took advantage of his lack of conviction in changing pace in crunch overs.
However, by standing out in the DPL with three three-wicket hauls and an average of 19.60, he has shown what he can do with adequate match practice.
With the final against the South Delhi Superstarz, the season's best batting line-up set on Sunday (September 8), he can surge to the top of the table and perhaps make himself irresistible if released for the mega-auction for IPL 2025.
One step further
Simarjeet was in his hotel room during the Ranji Trophy when CSK picked him in the IPL 2022 auction. It was the first time he went to a team through the auction.
The happiness was compounded because he was a CSK fan growing up. So, as his Delhi teammates gathered outside and started banging on his door, Simarjeet jumped and danced on the bed, called his dad and coach, and then did more of the jumping before opening the latch and pretending to be casual about it.
He still beams with a smile and loses words when reminded about his debut in yellow and the feeling of having MS Dhoni's arms around him.
"It was a dream... not even a dream but more than that to play under him. The best [feeling] I have had in my career," he said.
For so many who continue to trudge on grounds unheard of in domestic cricket, who are just a few yards off the pace, are not tall enough, or don't have as gifted wrists, what Simarjeet has achieved is more than enough.
But for the Delhi boy who gave up the stick for the wicketkeeping gloves and eventually the leather ball, it isn't even close to being enough. He has already tasted the blue blood, in 2021, when he was promoted from a reserve to a squad member due to a COVID outbreak midway through India's tour of Sri Lanka.
His eyes are firmly set on a team he watched before CSK were even imagined. A team in desperate need of a middle-overs enforcer in white-ball cricket and of someone who can bowl 145kph+ consistently in the right areas with the red-ball.
"That's always 'the' dream, playing for India," he said. "That can't die till you are playing cricket. That's just the last thing, as in, once that happens the next thing you do is retirement. That's not even a question. I have to play for India, no matter what!"
Simarjeet would need to work a lot harder for it, play a lot more in the IPL and outside, avoid losing his footing on slippery slopes - figuratively and literally - and maintain the speeds, the planning, and the consistent execution. Because matches are made in heaven every day, but only a few make them count.