R Ashwin version 2.0: How he went from being dropped to becoming India's lead spinner
9th of December 2014: India vs Australia, First Test, Adelaide Oval
In the absence of full-time skipper MS Dhoni, due to injury, Virat Kohli is handed over the reigns to lead India. On expected lines, the team goes with a 7-4 combination but instead of picking Ravindra Jadeja, they opt to hand Karn Sharma a surprising Test debut. Now as much as that call came as a surprise to many, what caught most cricket fans even more aback was that Karn was picked ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin, who many felt was the next automatic choice if Jadeja wasn't included in the team.
Karn doesn't have the greatest of debuts and is dropped for the next Test in Brisbane.
With Jadeja ruled out of the Test series due to injury and MS Dhoni back to lead India, Ashwin finally got his chance to be India’s lead spinner in the bowling attack. In the first innings, the off-spinner bowled 33.4 overs and took 2 for 128. The first impression when you look at the numbers would tell you he hasn't bowled very well, but a closer analysis would tell two things.
1. The percentage of off-breaks delivered by him was a lot more as compared to the carrom ball.
2. The lines he bowled were good and were hit with a lot more consistency.
26th of December 2014, India vs Australia, Boxing Day Test, Melbourne
The Australians get off to a disastrous start with David Warner dismissed in the opening over. But Chris Rogers and Shane Watson steady the ship until Ashwin is introduced into the attack in the 19th over of the innings. The first over, sees just a single given away but more importantly, there are off spinning deliveries and very little experimentation.
The second and third over are maidens and at the end of 5 overs his figures read 5-2-4-0. Good pressure created and very good lines maintained throughout. The reward for his work isn't far off. In his 7th over, Ashwin traps Watson lbw with a full ball and Australia are 3 down.
The pacers continue to struggle at one end, but Ashwin keeps it tight at the other. More and more off-breaks and very little use is made of the Carrom ball. The hosts wind up with 530 and Ashwin with figures of 44-9-134-3.
15th of February 2015: India vs Pakistan Adelaide Oval
Set 301 to chase, Dhoni introduces Ashwin in the 14th over of the innings with Pakistan at 58 for 1. Every ball barring one is an off-break targeted on off-stump. The result: A maiden.
Second over: Once again every ball is an off break, and it yields 5 runs.
Third over: The first 5 balls to Haris Sohail include a few off-breaks and flatter deliveries before of the final ball he gets an off break to rip, takes the outside edge and is caught by Suresh Raina at first slip.
Classic offspinner's dismissal. Remarkably for a guy who has been criticised so much in his past for depending upon his carrom ball more than he should, 9 out of his first 18 balls are off breaks. He eventually finishes with figures of 8-3-41-1.
Ashwin continued to bowl in the same manner throughout the World Cup and finished the tournament with a tally of 13 wickets in 8 matches at an economy of 4.28.
The Tamil Nadu cricketer continued to show his new found method of deceiving the batsman in flight and loop in the recently concluded Test series against Sri Lanka and was rewarded with 21 wickets in 3 Tests and was also adjudged the Player of the Series.
Lessons learnt from Ashwin 2.0
Now there are two points I would like to raise here:
1.India needs to ensure that no matter what, this new version of Ashwin isn’t tampered with, one bit.
Clearly now Ashwin seems to have realised what will get him wickets not just at home but also in overseas conditions. With lack of quality spinners in the country, Ashwin seems to be India’s best option across all 3 formats and if he is to pick wickets consistently, across all formats, this approach is the way to go.
2. Ashwin’s approach needs to be inculcated in every spinning academy across the country.
As you might have seen from the above three examples, there has been no attempt on the part of Ashwin to try too many things, the carrom ball has also been used sparingly, and he hasn't tried to do something as outrageous as trying to bowl like Sunil Narine which he tried in the Asia Cup last year.
He has trusted his off-break a lot more than before and maintained a good pace and consistency with his lines and lengths. He has looked to set up the batsman by drawing him forward and making him play at deliveries thereby creating more wicket-taking opportunities.
That is why that every delivery that Ashwin has bowled in the last 9-10 months needs to be shown to every upcoming spinner in the country across all academies. The reason this should be done is to make every spinner understand that his main wicket-taking delivery is always the off break or his conventional delivery, and the variation is to be used only as a surprise weapon.
There should be no way that any spinner should entangle himself in the kind of labyrinth that Ashwin got himself into, as you don't know if there would be someone who would give him the help to get out of the situation.
It is also critical that coaches encourage this line-of-thought in the minds of in the minds of spinners, Encouraging kids to pursue their natural god-given talent is alright, but to do so at the expense of curtailing one's basics could lead to disaster.
The sooner this is learnt and understood, the better.