Ravichandran Ashwin: From just another mystery spinner to India’s premier bowler

Ashwin, playing his 100th ODI at Kanpur on Sunday, was once again MS Dhoni’s go-to man after South Africa made a solid start in the opening one-day game.

Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2008: Amit Mishra had made a mark in Test cricket and with the spin mantle looking positive in the coming days, skipper Anil Kumble — India’s ace spinner for almost two decades — decided that it was time for him to hang up the boots. The emergence of Mishra gave him the confidence, and of course there was his trusted spin deputy Harbhajan Singh

. While all this was happening, a then-21-year-old Ravichandran Ashwin was in his second season of domestic cricket and was busy troubling the Karnataka batsmen in a Ranji Trophy match at Bangalore. Little did anyone know that seven years on, not only he would lead India’s spin attack but also don the cloak of possibly the cricket world’s leading off-spinner. Live Scorecard: India vs South Africa 2015, 1st ODI at Kanpur

Ashwin, who is playing his 100th One-Day International (ODI) at Kanpur on Sunday, was once again MS Dhoni’s go-to man after South Africa made a solid start in the opening one-day game. In the over prior, Quinton de Kock had dismissed Umesh Yadav to the fence three times; but on this occasion he had no answer to Ashwin’s teasing flight which drew him forward and made him poke to first slip. That has been Ashwin’s story off late, and it would be an understatement to say that he has been India’s best bowler across formats in the recent times.

Ashwin in 2015:

The rise was not easy; not for someone who was dubbed just another T20 specialist or a ‘mystery spinner.’ In March 2010, Ashwin made headlines in his very first game for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) when he cleaned up Adam Gilchrist. That IPL season spinners dominated the bowling charts. Pragyan Ojha bagged 21 wickets, Mishra, Harbhajan, and Kumble got 17 each, and Ashwin got 13 at 22.53 — and an economy rate of 6.10. What was important was that he helped CSK win their maiden IPL Trophy.

There was no looking back and soon after the IPL he was handed his maiden ODI cap against Sri Lanka at Harare where he bagged figures of 10-0-50-2. The following year, he made it to India’s squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Though he was the second spinner to Harbhajan, he made a mark in the matches that he played in, and a few months later eclipsed him as the country’s first-choice spin bowler. His mental strength and ability to adapt to changing formats helped him shed the ‘mystery bowler’ tag in favour for the more respectable role of senior spinner. He was named Man of the Series in his debut Test series, where he also got his maiden Test hundred.

While he has bagged four ‘Man of the Series’ awards in Test cricket, he is still looking for that elusive five-wicket haul in ODIs. He would like to improve on his ODI bowling average, which is over 31, but in the kind of form he is in, it may well be a matter of time before that number falls.

Numbers apart, what makes him a genuine threat is his ability to trouble the best of batsmen. He can be credited for spoiling Kumar Sangkakkara’s farewell series; he dismissed the Sri Lankan stalwart four times in four innings, becoming the first bowler in history to do so. He ended up with 21 scalps, helping India win outside the country for the first time in four years, and bagged another Man of the Series award in the process.

While Sangakkara can be called the best willow wielder of the 21st century, it is safe to call AB de Villiers the best batsman still playing the game. Ashwin outfoxed the South African wizard in both the T20Is in the current tour. Ashwin, in fact, prevailed over de Villiers in the battle of minds. At Dharamsala, it was the change of pace that worked for Ashwin while in Cuttack, de Villiers was kept waiting for the classical off-spin while he was snapped up with a top-spinner. Hashim Amla, the best South African player of spin-bowling, too became a victim of Ashwin at Cuttack.

Without skill and hard work, it is not possible to sustain at this level but the majority of it is mental strength, and what one keeps learning. Ashwin’s mind is what makes him special and it may not be a surprise if captaincy comes his way at some point in his career.

In a recent interview with ESPNCricinfo, Ashwin emphasised on the importance of “knowledge.” He said what was missing from his bowling earlier was knowledge. “I think knowledge. Knowledge about my own bowling, about bowling, about offspin bowling, about my body mechanics, about my action, all this is knowledge packed into one. The knowledge I have right now is far more than what I had a couple of years ago. What mistake all of us make when we are talking about a particular cricketer is that we say they are trying too much, the control is not there, there is no patience. These are clichéd terms. If only patient cricketers were good cricketers, then only yogis could have been good cricketers. It’s more about skill, and the amount of knowledge you acquire over a period of time, which you can put in practice. All these things go into making a good cricketer. From two years ago, what I am today, I am far more mature, far calmer, far more knowledgeable, far more in control of what I am doing.”

As I write this, Ashwin is recovering from an injury, and South Africa made hay while he was away. De Villiers scored a magnificent century and the Proteas made 303. Ashwin would have wanted his 100th ODI to be more memorable than this. India will hope that he is back in action soon as it goes without saying that much of the side’s fortunes in this series will depend on how Ashwin fares.

(Suvajit Mustafi consumes cricket for lunch, fiction for dinner and munches numerous other snacks throughout the day. Yes, a jack of several trades, all Suvajit dreamt of was being India’s World Cup winning skipper but ended up being a sports writer, author, screenwriter, director, copywriter, graphic designer, sportsmarketer , strategist, entrepreneur,  philosopher and traveller. Donning so many hats, it’s cricket which gives him the ultimate high and where he finds solace. He can be followed at @RibsGully and rivu7)

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