Who is Tanush Kotian? Mumbai’s off-spinner who can potentially replace R. Ashwin in Test team

‘Khadoos’ is a term which can be termed crude in the normal sense of terms. In Mumbai cricket parlance this word is worn as a badge of honor. Tanush Kotian can certainly call himself ‘Khadoos’ after his terrific performance with the bat for Mumbai on Saturday. 

The 25-year-old scored a terrific ton for the defending Ranji Trophy winners in their Irani Cup game against Rest of India. This isn’t the first time the youngster has come to the party for Mumbai. His exploits during Ranji Trophy season are already spoken about highly. 

Tanush Kotian created history with his last wicket stand of 232 with Tushar Deshpande in 40 overs against Baroda. The Bandra Kurla Complex facility marvelled as the youngster batted with ease and regaled the crowd with classical shots. That day Kotian ended the innings 120 not out from 129 balls with 10 fours and 4 sixes. 

Is Tanush Kotian the readymade replacement for R. Ashwin

At the age of 38, R. Ashwin is still going strong and one hopes that he can continue to play for India at least for 2-3 years. There is a genuine concern though that India doesn’t boast many off-spin talents. The likes of Pulkit Narang and Saransh Jain have been steady performers in the domestic circuit. 

Tanush Kotian though has the ability to stake a claim for himself in the longest format of the game. His bowling has the bite that is needed to put the opposition batters in trouble. The 25-year-old off-spinner uses his height well and can deceive the batters with his flight as well as pace on the ball. Another aspect in Tanush Kotian’s bowling is his accuracy in hitting the right spot and landing the ball perfectly.  

In ten games, Mumbai’s young sensation picked 29 wickets with one fifer and one ten-wicket haul in the game. His partnership with Shams Mulani is similar to the Ashwin and Jadeja partnership for the national team. Mumbai cricket lovers can in fact dub it the new Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni partnership. 

The biggest moment in Kotian’s early cricketing career has to be his bowling in the Ranji finals against Vidarbha. In the first innings, the off-spinner took 3/7 to help the home team take a lead of 119 runs. In the 2nd innings, Kotian bowled 39 overs and conceded 95 runs to pick 4 wickets. 

One of the wickets in that game was that of centurion and Vidarbha skipper Akshay Wadkar. The 130-run stand for the 6th wicket between Wadkar and Harsh Dubey had kept Vidarbha in the hunt. Ajinkya Rahane for a fleeting second looked tensed but that fightback ended as Kotian soon trapped Wadkar LBW. 

Such performances also earned him a call to Rajasthan Royals as a replacement player. In his only game in IPL 2024, the youngster scored 24 with the bat against Punjab Kings while opening the batting. Being in the same dugout as India’s best spinner of the modern era would have been Kotian’s biggest motivation. 

Just like R. Ashwin with the bat and ball, Tanush Kotian is a crisis man for Mumbai. In the Irani Cup game, with Mumbai struggling at 171/8, it seemed that Rest of India were in the hunt. Kotian was joined by Mohit Avasthi as the pair added 158 unbeaten runs for the 9th wicket. With a single the youngster reached yet another century in domestic cricket as he was hugged by his partner. 

Few more performances like this and one good season will force the selectors to take a closer look at Tanush Kotian. Till then the youngster can continue to be a key member of Mumbai and showcase his ‘Khadoos’ nature of play to his ever-growing fan base.