Hail Ashwin for his skill, grit and a lot more

Has there been a bowler in cricket history—excepting perhaps Dennis Lillee—who has reinvented his methods, remodelled his action and reconfigured his arsenal more often than Ashwin?

With his outstanding double in the recent Chennai Test, Ravichandran Ashwin indisputably joined the pantheon of great all-rounders in international cricket. There appears little doubt that, given good health and freedom from injury, he will equal or surpass Anil Kumble’s record of Test match wickets. That his batting, admittedly a thing of beauty, has entered a brave new phase, too, was announced by his sterling rearguard action in the company of fellow all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, when all seemed lost for India in the first innings at Chepauk, his home ground. To be able to score yet another hundred in the circumstances he overcame in that knock suggested an almost monk-like quality of shutting out the surrounding noise and chiselling a display worthy of a master craftsman.  

I will not dwell on the many records the off spinner-batsman has smashed with that century and the six-for that followed—almost effortlessly, it seemed. Nor will I try to dissect his bowling into its many fascinating parts. I shall, instead, try to deconstruct his stylistic, temperamental and intellectual evolution from the brash young challenger he was to start with into the mellow master we marvel at today.  And let me be totally honest, I was not an admirer of his methods for quite a while even as he marched on to conquer statistical heights, winning series after series for India in the process. For I had been brought up on the aesthetically pleasing orthodoxy of Jim Laker, EAS Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan, even enjoyed the pre-doosra-obsessed Saqlain Mushtaq, and the supremely confident Graeme Swann. Not for me the relatively ungainly modern genius of Muttiah Muralitharan or Ashwin, which regardless of its astonishing success, failed to move me in quite the same manner.  

But Ashwin is Ashwin. Has there been a bowler in cricket history—excepting perhaps the post-stress fracture Dennis Lillee—who has reinvented his methods, remodelled his action and reconfigured his arsenal more often than Ashwin? Nothing seems to faze him, not his rare failures, not being sidelined on overseas tours.    

How often do we come across another ace performer who can so readily embrace as partner in crime the rival to whom he lost his place in the XI in the first place? The same question can of course be posed of that very partner in crime. Jadeja and Ashwin are that unique pair of Siamese twins that can be surgically separated, only to merge back again at a moment’s notice as it were. The mutual admiration society they have grown into is rare indeed among fiercely competitive sportspersons even if they are joined together in the common cause of their team. If the left-hander has in recent years proven the more consistent batsman under varying conditions while continuing to ask questions with his nagging and incisive left-arm spin on all manner of surfaces—especially with the red ball—the right-hander keeps bouncing back with his knack for turning matches on their head with ball in hand. But for Jadeja’s vastly superior fielding, the odds might even have favoured Ashwin’s chances more often as the No.1 spinner.

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Not too long ago, Ashwin led arguably the most stirring fightback in India’s cricket history in the company of that unsung hero Hanuma Vihari, both batsmen defying crippling injuries and overwhelming odds, to put their team firmly on the path of an amazing series win, the first against Australia in Australia. Always known for his fluent if occasionally reckless strokeplay, Ashwin showed us that he could fight with his back to the wall, proving to millions of viewers in the process that a draw can be exciting too.  

To go back to my initial reference to the aesthetics of the great spinners of the past, yes, I did believe that the early Ashwin bowling action was awkward in comparison with the classical beauty of a Prasanna or Venkataraghavan style, for all that their own actions had nothing in common between them. Ashwin has been a fearless experimenter all through his career, but am I right in assuming that the gradual streamlining of his bowling action has also meant greater preoccupation with consistency at the cost of variety with a parallel enhancement in the extent of his overseas successes (when not benched)? Who else among international bowlers has exhibited the steel to ignore carping criticism the way Ashwin has, calmly working all along  on improving that aspect of his game abroad?

I cannot think of a world-class batsman that has mastered Ashwin. Here, I may be straddling red-ball and T20 cricket. Steve Smith, Marcus Labuschagne, David Warner, Ben Stokes, Chris Gayle…they have all struggled against his wiles. In his approach to Ashwin, even Joe Root has not been quite as confident as he is generally known to be. And when was the last time Gayle dominated Ashwin? Did he ever? As for lesser mortals like Jonny Bairstow or Travis Head, they  can look silly right in the middle of a purple patch  when foxed by Ashwin’s bag of tricks — real or imagined.

Ashwin recently stated that he has learnt to compartmentalise his batting and his bowling.  As I understand him, while he likes to visualise a scenario of successive deliveries often based on his mental database of the batsman’s strengths and weaknesses, he has gained greatly by focusing on one ball at a time while batting.  This reminded me of my own likening in a podcast of the way Ashwin seems to think through his bowling to a chess player’s moves. Prasanna was a master of anticipating a batsman’s responses to his bowling wares and trapping him through subtle deceipt. Bishan Bedi teased the batsman into error, tempting him with one kind of delivery and surprising him afterwards with a wickedly different offering. Venkataraghavan’s precise, probing ways were compared to a surgeon’s wielding of his scalpel. When the variation came, it was to deadly effect.

Ashwin is 38 now, but he looks fit and fresh enough to continue breaking records as a leading all-rounder in world cricket in the next few years. One of the most cerebral cricketers around, he would have probably made a successful India captain had he been offered the mantle. Active on social media, he demonstrates exceptional people skills while interacting with teammates and colleagues. It may be too late for India, but Tamil Nadu can surely benefit from his leadership, and who knows, capture the Ranji Trophy which has eluded its grasp since 1987. Ashwin has himself mentioned that goal as a consummation he desires.    

Chennai-based V Ramnarayan is a former Hyderabad Ranji Trophy off-spinner and author of the book, Third Man

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