On June 17 1999, Shane Warne produced one of the great spin performances in ODI cricket. In the semi-final of the World Cup, defending a paltry 213, he bowled - while delivering figures of 10-4-29-4 - a ball that was nearly as good as the ball of the century. Drifting in, dipping on Herschelle Gibbs, it pitched well outside leg, short of where Gibbs expected it to, and spun past the unsure bat to hit the stumps. The only difference here was, the world knew what Warne was capable of but he still did it.

Far away, in Meerut, an 11-year-old kid watched on TV. Warne had Karn Sharma at that ball. Karn says he still drops everything else and stops to watch if they are showing the highlights of that spell on TV. It rained a lot on the second day of Karn's debut Test, in Adelaide. The big screen and the TVs showed the highlights of that Edgbaston match during one of the rain breaks.

You wondered if Karn, figures of 24-1-95-1 at that time, stopped and watched again the reason why he became a legspinner. Warne, you knew, hadn't stopped over for more than a quick analytical glance at what he saw. Karn bowls off two steps, almost like Warne. Karn tries to make up for lack of rhythm and momentum with a quick flurry of arms just before the delivery, which looks like a non-swimmer trying to stay afloat in icy cold water. The action put on the ball is not enough to find much drift or dip.

It hasn't impressed Warne much: he sees same trajectory every time, same release, and not much turn. Remember the old Warne maxim: landing the ball in a good area is not enough, you have to send it there through varying paths. He doesn't see that in Karn, he has said on Channel 9 commentary. Karn himself said in a press conference that he tried to do during the Test the same things he tries to do during Twenty20s, the format that has given him recognition, and surprisingly, the basis to select him. And what you mostly do in T20 is, bowl flat, not worry about the turn, and wait for the batsmen to make mistakes.

What Karn said in the press conference can be misleading: he is not comfortable with English, and also Indian players hardly care about what they say or respect the time spent at press conferences. It won't be fair to hang Karn the Test legspinner to dry based on what he said at a press conference. Yet his match figures of 49-3-238-4 sit at complete odds with the opposition's lead spinner, Nathan Lyon who took 12 wickets in the match. All four of Karn's wickets came through batsmen playing adventurous shots in a push for declaration. He hardly ever looked like creating trouble. Through this selection, India also lost out on R Ashwin's batting. Not to mention a chance of exploiting the rough, ironically created by India quicks' plan to persist bowling round the wicket to David Warner and Chris Rogers.

The selection was no doubt questionable, especially since Ashwin had begun to regain some rhythm in the two Tests that he played in England, but you could also see why India would want to go to someone else. Wrist spinners, for starters, have always been more successful in Australia than the finger ones. Ashwin's statistics away from home hardly inspire confidence. His average of 64.5 in away Tests is worse than Karn's effort in Adelaide. Ravindra Jadeja's 46 is no flash either, and he is hardly used by MS Dhoni as a wicket-taker anyway.

The message sent out by India in Adelaide was clear. They wanted to be aggressive. They were of the view that if they kept repeating the same process, the result would be the same: one win in the last 20 away Tests. They wanted to shake things up. And they had seen that Karn had been doing better than the other two in the nets.

"That was my personal decision," stand-in captain Virat Kohli said. "We felt that Karn was bowling better than the other two spinners at the time. In the warm-up games and the practice sessions as well. No regrets. A plan that I thought should work for us. He bowled pretty well for his first game. You have to give the guy some credit. Kept the fielders up as well. Kept challenging the Aussie batsmen, and if they were good enough they would have scored, which they did. So he is someone who will put out a challenge to the batsmen, and that's what I like."

It sounded like a selection based more on attitude and classification - wrist spinner as opposed to finger. Ashwin and Jadeja are known to fall back on defensive fields too early. Karn wasn't going to, Kohli said without expressly drawing the comparison. It didn't work out.

The chances of its working out - despite the noble intention - were low at the outset. Legspinners take time to mature. This one had played only 34 first-class matches previous to this, for just 66 wickets. In domestic cricket he had never been asked to bowl more overs than he bowled in the first innings of his Test debut, 33. There was simply not enough experience of working first-class batsmen out. All he had going for him was glowing IPL reviews, attitude and Australia's friendliness to wrist spinners.

Two days before the second Test, India might not have made their mind up yet on ending the experiment. Karn and Ashwin were the two spinners bowling in the nets, still not ruling out a shot at redemption, although Ashwin practised taking catches at first slip, which while not a sure indicator might hint at the change. If he is dropped, it is possible Karn might never play Test cricket again. It's possible he could come back by the time India reach Sydney. It's possible he might come back an improved bowler. It won't change the fact that in Adelaide he was thrown into the deep end without knowing the dangers of drowning. During that Test, his arms flurried again and again, but he couldn't stay afloat.

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