India, Sept. 1 -- At 19, an Indian leg-spinner walked into Test cricket against perhaps the most intimidating batting side of his age and produced something the game had never quite seen. Across two innings in Madras, he bowled 54.3 overs, conceded 136 runs and took 16 wickets. Viv Richards, the great destroyer of bowling attacks, fell to him twice. By the time India completed a 255-run victory, a teenager making his debut had rewritten a record that had stood for 16 years.

And it did not immediately look like a freak occurrence. Three Tests against New Zealand followed later that year, bringing another 20 wickets. Four matches into his international career, the young spinner had 36 Test wickets at 14.61. No bowler in history had taken m...