You can get a lot of advantage with full-sleeves and tweaked actions - Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin, no stranger to trying new variations, has shed some light into why he has been noticed bowling with Sunil Narine-like action in the recent past. Not one to mince words, the Indian off-spinner also admitted that bowling with full sleeves can have advantages attached with it.
Speaking ahead of their last Group 2 match, against Australia, Ashwin said: “I wanted to do something different (on his Narine-like action). Unless you try, you won’t find out what can work or not. I had never bowled in full-sleeves before. So I wanted to see how it would feel. That’s point number one.”
The 27-year-old raised a few eyebrows when he said “you can do a little bit with your elbow” when a bowler bowls with full sleeves on: “And I just wanted to see if you can get more revs (revolution) on the ball if you can do a little bit with your elbow, as much as that is. You can get a lot of advantage with these things — so why should I lag behind if someone else is getting a competitive edge.”
When asked if the team, which has chased on all the three occasions after winning the toss, would consider batting first for a change, he said: “I would not want to swim a tsunami! I would not want to challenge conditions. If we win the toss, we’ll again bowl first if that is what is required. You will be fighting against a wall if you are fighting against conditions.”
The spin duo of Ashwin and Amit Mishra have been in terrific form in the World Cup, sharing all the three Man-of-the-Match awards between them, which has helped the Indian team, unbeaten in the tournament and qualified to the semi-finals, to a large extent. MS Dhoni will be hoping that they continue to wreak havoc with the ball as India proceed to the final stages of the tournament.