In just 13 Tests, Simon Harmer has taken 60 wickets at an average of 23.38. That includes game-changing spells at the iconic Eden Gardens, which in turn powered South Africa to a famous win. Hang on! With such impressive numbers behind him, how has the 36-year-old played a mere 13 Tests? The simple reason is that he signed up with Essex in 2016 as a Kolpak player. When England withdrew from the European Union, he continued to represent Essex as an overseas cricketer.
Eventually, in 2022, he returned to the South African Test set-up for a series versus Bangladesh and immediately made an impression by taking seven wickets. In 2023, Harmer was back in the wilderness. But for the recent tour of Pakistan, he was recalled to the Test side and he hasn’t looked back since. In Pakistan, he bagged 13 wickets and that was followed by eight at Eden Gardens.
That is a synopsis of Harmer’s Test career so far. But what are his skill sets? And what makes him a bowler of pedigree? To understand Harmer’s bag of tricks, consider how he went about his business while bowling to a set of batters at Eden Gardens. Sometimes, his offerings would be fuller; on other occasions, he would pull his length back a touch. At times, he would give delicious flight, and then he would extract turn at pace or bowl the slider. While bowling to the left-handers, it seemed as if he was playing with yo-yo strings with subtle variations in line, length and pace.
The above lines are evidenced by how he dismissed Washington Sundar in the first innings and then Rishabh Pant in the second. When Pant arrived at the crease, there was a sense of anticipation, but Harmer made it seem as if the southpaw was batting on a hot tin roof. In the 20th over, he tossed it up a couple of times and then employed the slider. The coup de grace came via a delivery that was slightly slower than the previous one, with Pant getting caught and bowled.
After South Africa won the Test, Harmer said in a press conference: “From that first over last night against Washington, it was quite evident that the ball was going to turn and you want to be testing batters on the front foot,” he noted. “If you allow them time to go back, it allows them to adjust and play the turn off the wicket. So you try to test batters on the front foot and test their front-foot defence, which allows the ball to spin past the bat and brings in both edges. Then you also try and get one not to turn to bring in lbw, but overall, it was pretty evident that you needed to be fuller rather than shorter on that wicket.
“It’s also about having the subtle variations of balls that don’t turn,” he said. “Sometimes you get onto turning wickets, you’re just trying to turn it more and more and more, and the skill lies in bowling a ball that doesn’t turn on a wicket that is turning. Obviously, I’ve got a lot more experience since the last time I was here,” he added.
Having bowled on some unresponsive wickets in England, he also seems to have developed the art of playing the waiting game. Here’s a bowler who can operate like an archetypal Asian spinner on subcontinental decks, side-spin, turn at pace, the slider and you would still bet on Harmer imparting more revs on the ball somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. To summarise, with a wealth of experience behind him, Harmer has become a complete bowler. South Africa would be hoping for him to stay fit as they eye a memorable clean sweep in India.
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