If the choice had been left to Tanush Kotian, he would have bowled unchanged from one end. On the opening day of India’s domestic season, the Mumbai all-rounder had no desire to part with the red ball. Playing for West Zone in their quarterfinal against North Zone, Kotian took four wickets and two sharp diving catches — one off his own bowling — as West restricted North to 251 at the BCCI Centre of Excellence. West were 31/2 at stumps, leaving the contest evenly poised.

There was a surprise as soon as North elected to bat at Ground 1. West captain Ruturaj Gaikwad opened the bowling with Kotian’s off-spin. The turn he extracted immediately showed why. West had found the surface on the dry side before the game and expected it to grip, particularly with some moisture around. The live grass, they felt, was not going to deceive them; if anything, it was helping hold the surface together.

Kotian went wicketless in his first three-over spell, but Mumbai teammates Shardul Thakur and Tushar Deshpande made the early inroads. Deshpande, in particular, bowled with serious pace, consistently touching 150kph as he removed North’s top order of Qamran Iqbal, Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad.

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Iqbal was beaten by a yorker, Badoni’s attempted slash ended in the wicketkeeper’s hands and Samad lost his stumps. Even as Deshpande provided the breakthroughs, Kotian kept toiling.

A consistent performer for Mumbai with bat and ball, Kotian had replaced R Ashwin in India’s Test squad but has since slipped down the pecking order. Saransh Jain’s Test debut in Colombo on Sunday, after he was preferred to Kotian during the India A series in Sri Lanka, was another indication of the competition he faces.

Judge. Run. Dive. Grab 🔥

Tanush Kotian pulls off a couple of stunning catches 😮

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/cATggoXuky#DuleepTrophy pic.twitter.com/WmkgcN8Fri

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) August 23, 2026

Kotian, though, served notice that he is not going to make it easy for Jain. Gaikwad knew what he could offer, having seen him bowl in Sri Lanka, where Kotian was part of the India A squad. Despite having had little match practice in the off-season, he had bowled plenty of overs there and showed no signs of lacking rhythm.

On a surface offering turn, Kotian became Gaikwad’s best option to attack and defend. He began with a short leg, leg slip and slip in place, and finished with 4/72 from 20.5 overs, consistently finding drift, turn and control.

“I had that confidence because I was with the India team in Sri Lanka. I got to bowl a lot at the nets over there. In Mumbai, it was raining, so I couldn’t get outdoor sessions. In Sri Lanka, I got those outdoor sessions and bowled to brilliant batsmen. It helped me bowl accurately and get that bite and turn,” Kotian said.

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His off-season had also been spent working on the finer details of his bowling. During the IPL, he closely watched Ravindra Jadeja and worked with Sairaj Bahutule. At the spinners’ camp, he worked with Sunil Joshi at the Centre of Excellence before making further tweaks with Jatin Paranjape in Mumbai.

“I have improved a bit on my angles. I’ve changed a little bit in the run-up, especially running through the angles. And when there is wind, how to use the drift like here. I knew the wind was the main thing we had over here, so I was thinking of bowling with the drift and turn,” he said.

When Badoni and Ayush Doesja were trying to build North’s innings, Kotian was the bowler who consistently troubled them. Badoni did step out and hit him for a six over mid-wicket, but Kotian soon settled into a rhythm. Doesja, in particular, struggled to progress and survived a couple of close LBW appeals.

Just as the left-hander appeared to have weathered the spell and begun to look more comfortable against fellow left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, Kotian got another chance at him. Doesja was caught at silly point, giving Kotian his first wicket.

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Once he had broken through, Kotian was into his stride. In his next over, he trapped North captain Kanhaiya Wadhawan before removing Anshul Kamboj for 60.

Kamboj’s innings, off 52 balls and featuring a boundary and four sixes — all against Deshpande across two overs — had helped North recover. Without it, their total of 251 could have been considerably lower.

For Kotian, the four-wicket haul was an ideal way to begin a season in which he knows there is plenty at stake. His approach, however, remains simple: perform and leave the selection decisions to others.

“The mentality is to do well in each and every innings I get. In bowling and batting, I think of doing better. Selectors have their thing; if they have to select me, they will. I have to do my job — take wickets, score runs for my team and do better. Whatever opportunity comes, I have to grab it. On the scoreboard, getting four wickets or scoring a fifty or century is the thing. I’ve been doing it for Mumbai and I want to repeat it,” he said.

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Brief scores: Quarterfinals: North Zone 251 (Anshul Kamboj 60, Ayush Badoni 51, Ayush Doesja 42; Tushar Deshpande 4/57, Tanush Kotian 4/72) vs West Zone 31/2. East Zone 355/6 (Sudip Kumar Gharami 146 not out, Shahbaz Ahmed 100 not out, Kumar Kushagra 55; Pheiroijam Jotin 3/53) vs North East Zone.