The overseas woes of Ravichandran Ashwin

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND – JANUARY 22: Ravichandran Ashwin of India dives for his own bowling during the One Day International match between New Zealand and India at Seddon Park on January 22, 2014 in Hamilton, New Zealand. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Time could not be worse in case you go by the name of Ravichandran Ashwin. From a man who was the toast of the nation only a few months back and had the cricketing world at his feet when he became the fastest Indian to take 100 wickets which he did in Sachin Tendulkar’s 200th and final Test Match, the irony could not have been starker as calls for his dropping become louder by the day. For India’s premier off spinner and M.S Dhoni’s trusted ally, life has come a full circle.

From being called stereotyped, ineffective and his variations being rendered useless, all the guns are blazing on him currently. And rightly so for his form outside the spinner friendly dens of the subcontinent in the challenging overseas conditions where the real test lies has been nothing short of woeful.

The tracks of South Africa or New Zealand or any nation for the matter hardly offer any sort of assistance to the spinners and more so to finger spinners. It may be different for wrist spinners due to their advantage of disguising the ball. A Shane Warne could do it though in any condition thrown at him. But then, sadly Ashwin is no Warne, not even a shadow of the great leg spinner.

Let’s have a peek at his overseas exploits in South Africa and New Zealand. Till the 4th ODI in New Zealand where India lost the series, Ashwin’s cumulative figures of both the tours including Tests and ODIs depict a sad story. He has bowled 108 overs with 5 maidens and conceded 467 runs with only 2 wickets in his kitty.

In the on-going New Zealand series, except for his 65 in the 3rd ODI, he has not managed to dish out any inspiring performance especially with the ball which is his primary job. So far in 74 ODIs, Ashwin has 97 victims, 55 of those on Indian pitches. He is never taken a five-wicket haul in ODIs and his best bowling figures are 3/24 which were also at home.

It can be said that it is high time Ashwin gets into the groove. Heads are sure to roll after the two debacles and Ashwin could easily be one of them. Moreover, with formidable challengers like Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra and others lined up to grab the numero uno spinner spot, it is unlikely that Ashwin could sustain himself on MS Dhoni’s and the management’s backing for long. With one last ODI to go, it could be do or die for the offie and he would be hoping to make it count.