R Ashwin’s 169 wickets is the most claimed by a spinner in his first 31 Tests. (AFP)


Reuters/New Delhi


If Ravichandran Ashwin is being hailed as the best spinner in contemporary cricket, the 29-year-old lanky Indian owes it as much to those long fingers as to an ever-ticking brain.
Since his Test debut against West Indies four years ago, the tweaker from Chennai has emerged as a shrewd off-spinner who relishes his battle against the best and the sight of batsmen misreading his carrom ball.
His penchant for outsmarting key rival batsmen manifested in Sri Lanka earlier this year when he soured Kumar Sangakkara’s farewell by dismissing the retiring great in each of his last four innings. The same trait resurfaced in Nagpur on Friday, when he foxed AB de Villiers, having dismissed the talismanic South African in the first two Twenty20 Internationals at the start of the tour as well.
“The dismissal was quite well-planned, honestly,” Ashwin said after his 12-wicket match haul helped India take a series-clinching 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
“I had not given him a single carrom ball all through this tour. Today I thought on this wicket, to get it to straighten from wide of the crease, I think it was a very, very good ball.”
Ashwin gave an insight into a smart cricketing brain when explaining how he changes his bowling approach in the second innings of a Test match. “Most of the cues come when I go out to bat there. When I was defending ... there was a difference in the first innings and the second. The ball was not spinning viciously. It slowed down a bit, so I knew we had to be a touch fuller to bring them on the front (foot) and also vary our paces and trajectories.”
Ashwin was the architect of India’s 2-1 series victory in Sri Lanka and his 24 scalps against South Africa means it would be difficult to deny him a second successive man-of-the-series award. “He is a world class spinner, probably the best in the world right now,” India captain VIrat Kohli said of Ashwin who has claimed 55 wickets this year, the most by any bowler.
“He’s stepped up in a big way for us, even in Sri Lanka. He is one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to win back-to-back series,” added Kohli.
The rank turners India rolled out for South Africa have taken some of the sheen off Ashwin’s feat but few doubt the skill of the bowler whose 169 wickets is the most claimed by a spinner in his first 31 Tests. “A batsman goes out there to get a hundred, I go out there to get a five-wicket haul. That’s how I view it,” said Ashwin.
India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun also said Ashwin was growing in stature with each series. “There is no great change in his bowling. The only thing is that now he is more aware of his strengths and has understood the angles at which he needs to bowl to be most effective. He was always a good bowler but now he is growing in stature with each series because his awareness levels have improved tremendously,” Arun told  bcci.tv.
Arun said what has made Ashwin a better bowler now is that he uses his variations sparingly. “He is one of the best off-spinners around. The challenge was for him to say, ‘I will trouble the best in the world with my off-spin’. The fact is that he is a lot more consistent in bowling his off-spin right now. That means his variations are a big surprise. Of course, he has got a lot of them up his sleeve, but he uses them very sparingly,” he said. “This is the X factor in his bowling right now.”
Asked about what he and Ashwin discuss in the nets, Arun said: “My job is only to make him understand the different angles and we speak about it a lot. He has a lot of questions to ask and I try to clear the doubts that come up in his mind. Once the doubts are cleared, the bowler goes about expressing himself.”
“We set the benchmark such that we try and go beyond what is expected. Even if something we talk about is not applicable in a match situation, there is some degree of benefit in it that would really help him out in a match.”
Arun added that the lanky spinner has worked on his fitness for which he is now reaping rich rewards. “It is a wrong concept that spinners mainly use their fingers and shoulders to bowl. You have to use your entire body. And bowling 25 overs in a day is very demanding on a spinner’s entire body,” he said.
“Ashwin has understood this and has worked a lot on his fitness. He is a lot fitter today than he was some time ago. That is helping him to use his body much better and has a lot to do with where he is today.”



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