R Ashwin and the Changing Tides

“If cricket were a game of stocks, the blue chips would be the spinners. They have been a pretty solid investment over the years and currently, across continents and cultures, they are throwing up quite outstanding returns.”

A tall offspinner who bowls with a high-arm action, having the precious ability to operate at difficult stages of the innings and is studying to be an engineer, R Ashwin has some uncanny similarities with S Venkataraghavan, but for the moment the comparison should end there.

Ravichandran Ashwin: India's new spin talent

As Harsha Bhogle says the spinners are normally a very happy bunch of guys and you will rarely find them complaining about things. Unless of course one of them is called Robert Croft (the purists would scorn at his presence in this list!) for on a bright sunny day on a dusty wearing track he will complain about the length of the umpire’s shoelaces! But that of course is history so let’s move on.

R. Ashwin’s bag of tricks and the intelligence with which he mixes his deliveries stands out. For a man who has played just 9 ODI’s and who is yet to make his test debut – to be considered as one of the most potent bowling forces in the country speaks for itself. India has never lacked the quantity of spin bowlers in its ranks. Almost every domestic side relies heavily on the exploits of their spinners. But it is the quality that counts when one gets to the highest level.

Ashwin may not be someone who you would call a classical off spinner but then again spin bowling is a matter of wits and the cricketing world is undergoing a massive transformation. The pace battery now waits for the ball to scruff up, for the shine to fade away so that they can come up and swing the ball the other way, while it is the spinners who have been entrusted with role of opening the bowling. Indeed, in Harsha Bhogle’s words, the cricketing equivalent of the El Nino.

It was Dipak Patel who first opened the bowling for New Zealand under Martin Crowe during the ’92 World Cup. Opening with spinners, although not an unknown phenomenon to the cricketing fraternity during the ‘90s, it was hardly employed on a regular basis till the turn of the millenium. With the advent of the T20 format, ironically, the effectiveness of spinners bowling with the new ball has certainly come to the fore. Already throwing the ball to a slow bowler in the Powerplays, once considered a surprise, a fad, is becoming normal. It is a strange game: the spinners are bowling the new ball and the quicks are waiting for the shine to go off a bit. It’s all happening, Bill Lawry might say.

Already the teams are adapting. The mighty South Africans, they of the muscular hit-the-deck variety of bowling, played three spinners during the World Cup. In one of their games they had Johan Botha, Robin Peterson and Imran Tahir, plus Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy and Graeme Smith himself to turn to. Old warhorses must have spluttered into their Castles at the sight.

India, too have employed this strategy on more occasions than one. In fact, Ashwin may very well be viewed as a specialist opening bowler who can be aggressive and on the same time curtail the run flow. That he has got the stomach for big matches and is undaunted by reputation was amply visible during last two editions of IPL and the Champions League where he played a major role in the CSK triumph. Purists might mutter about a lack of loop and flight, but he is very much a product of his times where short boundaries, heavy bats and shorter forms afford little latitude to slow bowlers.

He is India’s answer to the wily Ajantha Mendis, the “death-overs” specialist Johan Botha and Saeed Ajmal, who arguably has the most well deceived doosra amongst the current fray of spin bowlers. Yes, Bhajji still remains India’s lead bowler in all the three formats of the game but R Ashwin is well on course on playing the perfect foil to the turbanator, pretty much like he himself did when playing with former Indian Captain Anil Kumble.