Volume 7

He ensured that cricket stayed all around him
in these hard times as well. Being a test regular
spent the limited-overs leg of the Australia tour,
which he was not part of, working hard on and
improving his batting. He thinks a lot about the
game that he loves the most, this thing was quite
evident from his Instagram series ‘Reminisce
with Ash’ was discussing the 2017 Bengaluru Test
against Australia along with Pujara. Ashwin kept
asking Pujara several things about the game, but
to no avail. Pujara hardly recalled anything. He
vividly remembered one incident though: the
diving catch Wriddhiman Saha took to dismiss
Matthew Wade in the 4th innings.
He had to work on his secondary skill as he was
being left out of the side because of Ravindra
Jadeja’s added batting advantage. Like the earnest
competitor that Ashwin is, he felt he needed to
prove he was worthy of a place in the side. He
would ask batting coaches what he needed to do
and would tell them he would do it. . His teammates
and coaches have sometimes in the past
secretly ridiculed him for being too ambitious,
but this was understandable desperation and
ambition. Over the years, Ashwin has bowled
off-breaks, carrom balls, the undercutter, legbreaks,
googlies, and on occasion in the nets
even slow left-arm orthodox. As a younger
man, this was Ashwin’s way of staying one step
ahead of batsmen. When one thing did not
work, he would try something else. Anything
but giving the ball away to another bowler.
With added experience and longevity Ashwin
has matured like a fine wine.
The past decade and a half have seen two finger
spinners- Nathan Lyon and Ravichandran
Ashwin dominate the test cricket arena. For an
off-spinner, the wicket-taking ball is the delivery
that spins and bounces more than the batsmen
would anticipate. Both Ashwin and Lyon
compel the batsmen to make a misjudgment by
generating a stunning loop with their actions.
Deliveries bowled by them dip in front of the
batsmen, forcing them to make an error. This
dip is the result of massive revolutions. Given
their control over pace and length, owing to
their action, they are lethal even in a dead track.
On our recent triumph down under, Ashwin
outbowled Nathan Lyon, something that does
not happen too often. He did this in a Lyonesque
way, relying on overspin more than horizontal
deviation off the pitch. This helped him make
Steve Smith his bunny in the very series
mentioned above. Having bowled like never
before Ashwin was very keen to perform with
the bat. He worked with Vikram Rathour before
the first test and looked fine with the willow.
In that Adelaide Test, there were signs of the
return of Ashwin the batsman when he added 27
with Wriddhiman Saha in the first innings, but
again he was part of that horrible collapse in the
second innings. Ashwin did feel, though, that
he was batting better and that something good
was around the corner. This was followed by a
modest outing with the willow at MCG which in
his terms was a kind of confidence booster given
that he had survived for a decent time at the
crease. Then came the fabled SCG masterclass
that would stay on as a paragon example of grit,
determination, courage and strong-willed self
believe for generations to come. Having gone
through the rigorous engineering curriculum
Ashwin overcame a sore back in what could be
labelled as his finest batting performance to date.
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