"Hop and skip and keep going" - R Ashwin's hilarious take on imitating Harbhajan after surpassing him in 1st India vs New Zealand Test

Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that he used to imitate Harbhajan Singh’s bowling action during his younger days as a cricketer. Ashwin also added that ‘Bhajju pa’ was the reason he took up spin bowling.

On Monday, Ashwin went past Harbhajan’s tally of 417 wickets to become the third-highest wicket-taker in India’s Test history. The 35-year-old achieved the feat when he bowled New Zealand opener Tom Latham for 52 on Day 5 of the Kanpur Test.

In a light-hearted interaction with Player of the Match Shreyas Iyer (105 & 65) on bcci.tv, Ashwin recalled how he used to copy Harbhajan’s bowling action before discovering his own groove. The seasoned off-spinner told Iyer:

“I used to bowl a bit of seam up for Tamil Nadu. Then I had a pelvic disc slip. After that, I just started batting, didn’t want to bowl at all. But, after that 2001 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, I decided to take up off-spin because of 'Bhajju pa'. It’s pretty easy, you put your hands across, hop and skip and keep going. That’s how I started. Now, I don’t know if I can do it (smiles).”

Ashwin also got the wicket of Tom Blundell (2) on Day 5 in Kanpur and now has 419 Test wickets to his name at an excellent average of 24.48

“Didn’t know if I would play Test cricket after the pandemic” - Ravichandran Ashwin

Ashwin is currently on a high. He recently made a successful comeback to India’s T20 squad after a gap of four years, during the World Cup in the UAE. He has continued the good work in the home series against New Zealand.

However, the Tamil Nadu cricketer admitted that he was unsure about where his career was heading during the time of the pandemic. Ashwin conceded:

“I didn’t know if I would play Test cricket after the pandemic. I hadn’t played the last Test in Christchurch (before COVID). I was standing at the crossroads thinking whether I would play Test matches. Where is my future headed? Do I get into the Test team? This is the only format I play. God has been kind and I have been able to turn around things.”

Ashwin claimed three wickets in both innings of the Kanpur Test and also made useful contributions of 38 and 32 with the bat.