4 man of the series awards in 28 Tests, an exemplary bowling strike rate of 61 and an average of 32, fastest Indian to get to 100 wickets... and they go on. The numbers will tell their story. They always do. But what excites me the most from this extra ordinary bowler is the fact that he has tried innumerable things to get better every day, failed more often than not but never stopped learning. Having followed his entire career quite closely, I have seen Ashwin go through soaring highs and a few really ordinary phases. I have seen him bowl 6 variations in an over only to get smacked all over the ground. I have seen him dismiss the likes of Gayle, McCullum with attacking spin bowling with the new ball. I have seen him tossing it up to entice the batsman, or at times fire in too many darts. I have seen him doing it all, trying too hard to bring out the extra ordinary. It has worked a few times but fired right back in his face on most. The best thing of it all was, he never repeated his mistakes. You talk about virtues like temperament and character, and in Ashwin you get the entire package.
If you haven't yet, you should listen to Ashwin talk about his game, his preparations. There aren't many out there who read the game as well as he does. He spoke in the presentation ceremony after the 3rd test in Colombo about looking to put more body into the ball here on Sri Lankan wickets which tend to be quite slow. He also mentioned that he picked that up right after the 3-day practice game India played right before the before the first test. I thought that little adjustment he tried to make was top notch. He also hailed Sanjay Manjrekar's article on Cricinfo which helped him sort out a technical flaw after the Sydney test earlier this year. You listen to Ashwin talk about such things, and only wish if every Cricketer out there did these things. Watch this and I won't be surprised if you fall in love with him. But having said all that, the thing that has helped him the most is the fact that he has started to find peace with his stock delivery - the off spinner. It is a difficult thing to do that, mind you, especially when you have so many variations in your armory. He bowls the arm ball just as good as anyone and also has that trademark Ashwin carrom ball. However, the thing with stock deliveries is they are effective for a reason. That's why you have specialist "off spinners" or "leg spinners" and not someone who can bowl everything. It is not rocket science to be able to bowl all kinds of spin, but then had it been effective, people would have done that way too earlier and we wouldn't have specialist bowlers of a type.
What the stock delivery does is, it helps in setting batsmen up. Now here's the catch, you set batsmen up for the element of surprise - the variation. This variation need not be a complete variation in the type of the delivery i.e. you don't completely have to bowl the ball that (say) spins the other way. The variation could be in pace, in length, in flight or, more effectively, in the usage of the crease. When you bowl 8 balls from close to the stumps and suddenly bowl the 9th one slightly away in the crease, it creates a completely different angle and the batsman has to pick that up quickly to survive. Especially when there is not much on offer from the pitch, it is subtle variations like these which enforce the error. And, I think Ashwin is using that to a great effect. Also I believe he has worked quite a lot in developing 2 off spinners. One is his usual off spinner which comes quite naturally and effortlessly to him, but off late he has developed this new one which has a bit more bite in it. He gives the ball more rip by using his body a lot more and also tossing it up a little, thereby allowing more revolutions on the ball. On pitches where there isn't much bounce, the effort off spinner proves to be quite lethal. In this latest tour of Sri Lanka, I believe, he bowled the effort off spinner a lot more particularly because of the slow pitches there and the kookaburra ball which doesn't grip after a certain point.
In the video interview that I have shared above, Ashwin also talks about a very valid point about bowling with long sleeves and dirty actions. Apart from Ashwin, the other offies who have been successful lately are Ajmal and Narine. Both bowl with long sleeves and dirty actions and are now paying the price for it. There is of course that 15 degree rule, but then it is very marginal. It is always better to bowl with a clean straight arm action and that 15 degree leverage is for the odd ball where your delivery stride or rhythm messes up a bit and you don't release the ball properly. If you start playing with that 15 degree rule in order to give you more oomph in your bowling, you are constantly flirting with danger and it is just a matter of time when you are going to get suspected for it. I am very glad the ICC has been quite strict about it off late and is bringing the hammer out more often than not. A lot of spinners across the globe have come under scrutiny and it has given quite a few setbacks to teams depending heavily on that spinner. And as Ashwin rightly mentions in the interview, the harsh scrutiny is in turn laying out an even playing field for all spinners and that's how it should be.
When you think about it, that strike rate and that average by an action as clean as his, Ashwin is right up there among the best off spinners of the modern era. Add to that the exceptional attitude, a shrewd mind and a quick learner. What else can you ask for? It is true he struggled in away tours of SA, NZ, Eng and Aus, but then, every spinner does (at least in their first tours to the respective nations). At times, the fields set were slightly iffy or it was just hard luck. But if you look at his performance graph in all these tours, you will get a monotonically increasing curve and that is something he should be proud of. I thought he bowled really well in Australia. There might not have been a big 5 wicket haul but he kept it tight and gave those crucial breakthroughs here and there. In the world cup too, India in general performed quite good as a bowling unit and whenever you saw Ashwin bowl, he kept prodding away at the batsmen. Also, one must not forget the crucial batting depth he gives down the order with his exquisite technique and the ability to take on the bowling when required. Given his attitude and the rate at which he keeps on getting better with each game, I am quite certain he is going to be nothing but legendary for India in the years to come. With his smart ability to read the game, he might even be captaincy material. But we will have to wait for that. Although, I think it is not that bad an idea for him to be made the vice captain. A fitting candidate for that, has decent anount of experience and also a good rapport with Kohli. I'm excited for India's series with South Africa which starts next month. SA has a lot of left handers, Ashwin would be raring to go.
