PNN & Agencies
If Ravichandran Ashwin is being hailed as the best spinner in contemporary cricket, the 29-year-old lanky Indian owes it as much to those long fingers as to an ever-ticking brain.
In the ongoing home series against South Africa, the Tamil Nadu off-spinner has so far picked up 24 wickets in five innings including two five or more wickets haul. So in spite of the Tamil Nadu influence being weeded out of the BCCI’s corridors of administration, it still has a strong presence in the fortunes of the Indian cricket team.
Since his Test debut against West Indies four years ago, the tweaker from Chennai has emerged as a shrewd off-spinner who relishes his battle against the best and the sight of batsmen misreading his ‘carrom’ ball. But then once criticised for using the carrom ball too much, Ashwin currently uses it as a surprise weapon and that has increased his effectiveness manifold.
His penchant for outsmarting key rival batsmen manifested in Sri Lanka earlier this year when he soured Kumar Sangakkara’s farewell by dismissing the retiring great in each of his last four innings.
The same trait resurfaced Friday in Nagpur, when he foxed AB de Villiers, having dismissed the talismanic South African in the first two Twenty20 Internationals at the start of the tour as well.
“The dismissal was quite well-planned, honestly,” Ashwin said after his 12-wicket match haul at the Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur helped India take a series-clinching 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
“I had not given him a single carrom ball all through this tour. Today (Friday), I thought on this wicket, to get it to straighten from wide of the crease, I think it was a very, very good ball and the results are there for everyone to see.”
Ashwin also gave an insight into a smart cricketing brain when explaining how he changes his bowling approach in the second innings of a Test match.
“Most of the cues come when I go out to bat there. When I was defending … there was a difference in the first innings and the second.
“The ball was not spinning viciously. It slowed down a bit, so I knew we had to be a touch fuller to bring them on the front (foot) and also vary our paces and trajectories,” stated the man who skipper Virat Kohli refers to as the ‘talisman of Indian cricket’
Ashwin was the architect of India’s 2-1 series victory in Sri Lanka and his 24 scalps so far, (the Delhi Test still to go) against South Africa means it would be difficult to deny him a second successive man of the series award.
“He (Ashwin) is a world class spinner, probably the best in the world right now,” Kohli said of Ashwin who has claimed 55 wickets this year, the most by any bowler. “He’s stepped up in a big way for us, even in Sri Lanka. He is one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to win back-to-back series,” added Kohli.
The rank turners India rolled out for South Africa have taken some of the sheen off Ashwin’s feat but few doubt the skill of the bowler whose 169 wickets is the most claimed by a spinner in his first 31 Tests.
“A batsman goes out there to get a hundred, I go out there to get a five-wicket haul. That’s how I view it,” said Ashwin. “My job is primarily to bowl sides out, that is why I am in the side, not to restrict runs,” he added. It aptly sums up the man, doesn’t it?
The year before was not very good for Ashwin. In 2014, he had only 10 wickets to show for all his bowling in four Tests. Even though they were all away games, the returns were not worthy of a spinner of his calibre.
But Ashwin doesn’t want to complain. “I never do that,” he stated. “In fact, I am surprised that people are critical of the fact that my successes this year have been on turning tracks. Where were they when I was bowling on green tops and flat decks? There will always be some who will be critical. I am not bothered,” he added sarcasm dripping from his voice.
Add the two hundreds and five scores of 50 and above to the 169 Test wickets and you will have a cricketer of terrific stature. But Ashwin, even though he puts a value on his wicket, doesn’t want that ‘all-rounder’ tag . “I am a bowler primarily… my job is to bowl opposition out,” he stated candidly. “In the process, if I manage to get a few good scores, then so be it. The fact is that bowling is my top priority, not batting, even though I work on it also.”
He couldn’t have been closer to the truth. India need Ashwin the bowler, not the batsman.
