England prepare for trial by India’s spin master Ashwin

How good is Ravichandran Ashwin? To some the question is rhetorical, to others interrogative. After another spectacular performance against New Zealand, he is No1 in the ICC Test bowling rankings, and will surely make life very unpleasant for England’s batsmen this winter. Yet this is not a straightforward case of a spinner achieving greatness. The enormous disparity between his record at home and abroad means that Ashwin is often disparaged by one little phrase: rough-track bully.His overall record is astonishing. He has taken 220 wickets in only 39 Tests, and has won four consecutive man of the series awards – a feat that only Malcolm Marshall and Imran Khan had achieved. He takes wickets in industrial quantities and his record is that of a mini-Murali. In the past 50 years, only Muttiah Muralitharan has taken five-fers and ten-fers with such frequency; and of those spinners with 100 Test wickets in the same period, only Murali has a lower average than Ashwin’s 24.29.His recent form is even better. In the past 18 months Ashwin has taken 101 wickets at 16.77 in 15 Tests, leaving opposition teams at sixes and sevens – usually by taking six- and seven-fers. He managed both in last week’s third Test against New Zealand: six for 81 and seven for 59 to complete a 3-0 whitewash. He took 27 wickets in the series – nobody else on either side claimed more than 14 – and dismissed the great Kane Williamson four times out of four. Ashwin is developing a Glenn McGrath-like ability to take out the opposition’s best player; when India won in Sri Lanka in 2015, he dismissed Kumar Sangakkara four times out of four to spoil the batsman’s farewell Test series. His battle with Joe Root will be thoroughly compelling.Williamson and Sangakkara are the most recent recipients of Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World award. It’s indicative of the times that since the award began in 2003 it has only twice been claimed by a bowler – Shane Warne in 2004 and Dale Steyn in 2013. Ashwin is a vigilante hero, single-handedly redressing the unjust balance between bat and ball in Test cricket.Despite that, some do not appreciate his work. There is a simple reason for that: he has taken 70% of his wickets in India and 81% in Asia. His record overseas is modest – 67 wickets at 33.23, and that includes a superb recent series in the vaguely subcontinental conditions of the West Indies. In South Africa, Australia and England, Ashwin averages a miserable 56.58. His failure to take a wicket at Johannesburg in 2013, when South Africa almost chased down a world-record target of 458, led to the darkest period of his career as he watched the next six Tests from the sidelines. Yet most of his Tests in unfamiliar conditions occurred when Ashwin was still a work in progress – and in the most recent, the tour to Australia in 2014-15, he bowled far better than his figures (12 wickets at 48.66) suggested.That was a vital tour for Ashwin, when he was given an intravenous injection of confidence by the team director Ravi Shastri and also started to understand his game better. Spinners mature later than others, and at the age of 30 Ashwin, whose cricket brain never sleeps, has a much greater idea of how to use the many tools at his disposal. He turns it both ways, gets bounce, can subtly alter his flight, drift and speed, and even has natural variation on his side: a number of his wickets against New Zealand came from the deadly straight one.He has benefited enormously from the captaincy of Virat Kohli, a modern leader who likes to attack and often gives him a 7-2 field. On current form Ashwin is the captain’s ultimate dream – a stock strike-bowler. His strike rate of 49.4 is better than those of fast-bowling peers Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson. Ashwin is unlikely to replicate his freakish form overseas but there is compelling evidence that he will have a far greater impact the next time he tours South Africa, Australia and England. India visit all three between November 2017 and January 2019. Until then, all he can do is state his case through sheer weight of wickets at home.That will not be good enough for some. Ashwin is an extreme example of a phenomenon that has existed throughout cricket history, whereby Asian players, particularly spinners and batsmen, have their home-and-away records scrutinised more than those from the rest of the world It seems especially dubious to single him out in the current climate. Test cricket is dominated by home sides like never before, so he is clearly not the only one who is more comfortable in familiar conditions. He’s just more comfortable than anyone else. It sometimes feels like it would be better to be mediocre in all conditions than to excel in some. Ashwin is the most important of the many reasons why India have become invincible at home, and why a series win this winter would be among England’s greatest achievements. Since England triumphed in 2012-13, India have won 12 and drawn one of their 13 Tests. How good is Ravichandran Ashwin? By the end of the year, the England batsmen should be able to tell you.