- By Suresh Menon
- Sports writer
image source, Getty Images
Ashwin made his debut in 2011 and played more than 90 Tests
Of the nine bowlers who have claimed 500 Test wickets, India’s Ravichandran Ashwin – who has joined the club now – is by far the best batsman with five centuries.
Had Ashwin, 37, chosen to focus on batting to the exclusion of bowling, it is possible that he would have finished with over 10,000 Test runs.
On Friday, he became only the ninth man to reach the 500-mark. On the same day, the off-spinner pulled out of the third Test against England due to a family emergency but is now back with the team.
There is a silky touch to Ashwin’s batting and a tenacity that saw him save a Test in Hanuma Vihari’s side. Both fighters suffered physical blows and injuries in the fight.
A similar combination of the artistic and the abrasive, the classic and the contemporary, exists in his bowling. The variations on the off-break theme he developed early on meant that early in his career he tended to try too many things. (A no-break delivery spins from the off side to the leg side when bowling to a right-handed batsman. It is the most popular method of spin in cricket.)
It ranged from his running to how he held the ball in his hand to the angle of the seam. It went against the conventional wisdom that held that you should have a ball and use variations sparingly. But he served Ashwin well, and he took nine runs with five wickets in his first 16 Tests.
In many ways, Ashwin is in the league of one, even if he has to share the tag of best modern off spinner with Australia’s Nathan Lyon. He is often not considered the greatest of all time because 70% of his wickets have come home in familiar conditions.
Ashwin is the second Indian bowler – after Anil Kumble – to join the 500-wicket club
India has a rich tradition of off-spin bowling from Ghulam Ahmed, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan to Harbhajan Singh and Ashwin. Each is an original – this may have had something to do with their success. That three of them, including Ashwin, are qualified engineers may be a coincidence, but off-spinners have to work harder at their craft and that combination of discipline and brain power comes in handy.
Give anyone a ball and ask them to spin it. Chances are they will bowl an off-break. It makes familiarization for right-handers, whose natural swing is on the leg. This, coupled with powerful modern bats, ensures that the off-spinner has a tough job to do. With the development of white ball cricket, it was assumed that the race would disappear. So those who have managed it over many years – Ashwin made his debut in 2011 – and in different circumstances are special.
“Obsessive” is the word they often describe him because he is constantly thinking about his game. He speaks with authority and intelligence, developed the carrom ball, flicking it with his middle finger to go the other way. He speaks of strong fingers, a strong mind and confidence in his art.
With the ball in hand, he is a poker player who plays as if he can see the other person’s hand. In recent years, he has been in and out of the Indian team but has always given the impression that he is still one step ahead of everyone. In the modern game nothing is a secret for long. Develop a new tradition and by the end of the day, the computer has analyzed it to death and a student in Iceland is testing it. Bowlers have to work hard to be ahead of MacBook.
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Around 70% of Ashwin’s wickets have been taken at home – here he celebrates England’s Ben Duckett’s wicket in Hyderabad
Once younger men started leading India, Ashwin knew his chances of captaincy were gone – he would have made a good captain. The other 10 players may have struggled to understand him at first, as his mind moves on a different level – he said, for example, that The bad ball can be the most dangerous in T20 cricket – but once he earned their trust, they would eat out of his hands.
With Ravindra Jadeja, Ashwin formed India’s most effective bowling partnership, bowling more than 500 wickets as a pair. Jadeja is a nice contrast – steady, quick, unflagging, the straight man to Ashwin’s varied expressions. In a way, the pair they displaced, Anil Kumble-Harbhajan Singh, had a similar temperament.
Among Indians, Ashwin’s tally is second only to Kumble’s. He told an interviewer a few years ago, “I am a big fan of Kumble’s. He has 619 wickets. If I get to 618 I will be very grateful and this will be my last Test match.”
It’s a glimpse into the mind of a fascinating man.