Dec 20, 2024 18:27 IST
First published: December 20, 2024 at 18:26 IST
Ravichandran Ashwin is an exception in the cricketing world who has been leveraging power and pace for instant gratification. The slowness and patience with which spinners of the past aspired to be masters of their craft are not the virtues of today. Be it Irapalli Prasanna or Bishen Singh Bedi Bedi, the giants of the cricketing world would create a web of deception that led even the best batsmen to ruin. These skills are considered relics of the past, when cricket as a game is charting a new, supersonic course for itself. Hence, it is noteworthy that Ashwin built his skill set from the basic pillars of the game – flight, loop, drift and control. Even more surprising is that he did not succeed, he also created his own grammar that would be difficult to imitate.
Those who have watched him closely – not only nurtured him but also given him a helping hand to hone his skills – say Ashwin has an unprecedented hunger to learn new things. His father had enough resources to build a wicket for him at home where, as a child, he would bowl for endless hours. He would grow up to become the “Dada” of street, domestic and later, international cricket, playing in all formats and showing the same passion and commitment that had drawn him to the game as a child.
He is not light in frame like Indian spin king Bedi and Prasanna but Ashwin is much taller than the two masters. He borrowed loops and drifts from Prasanna. Traditionalists and happy bowl watchers may consider it blasphemous, but it would not be wrong to say that Ashwin’s use of flow was better than the master’s.
The ball in Ashwin’s hands comes down from a higher height than Prasanna’s. He could create a drift that made it difficult for the batsman to read the length of the ball. His long-time mentor and coach, former left-arm spinner Sunil Subramaniam, who has represented Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy Championship, has many insights to offer on Ashwin’s repertoire. “The ball will be released from a height of about eight feet (Ashwin 6’2”) performing all kinds of maneuvers before reaching the batsman. His sharp, thinking mind had created illusions of spin in the batsman’s mind. He was playing with their fear which led to their death,” says Subramaniam.
“Illusion of spin” is an interesting term coined by the late ML Jaisimha, a former Indian Test batsman, when he was looking after young South Indian players in the sixties and early seventies. Jaisingh says that a perfect spinner is one who creates the illusion of spin before the ball is delivered. Subramaniam says Ashwin is a bowler who has perfected this psychological advantage.
As Ashwin worked to refine his craft to meet the challenges that modern-day batsmen pose to off-spinners, he was aided by the rise of the Umpire Review System (DRS). By then he had also added the carrom ball to his bag of tricks. Batsmen who don’t use the legs and usually don’t line up for him, this master of drift, flight and turn will be a sitting duck for lbw.
Unmatchable at home, with threats on board, Ashwin has to be one of the best finger spinners the world has ever seen. He rivaled the feats of Shane Warne, Anil Kumble and Muttiah Muralitharan. His sudden and surprising decision to quit the game he played is hard to come to terms with.
He was dropped from the Indian team in the middle of a very important Test series. Navjot Singh Sidhu left the Indian team in anger during the 1996 England tour. Ashwin seems to have taken the consent of the captain but he has done the same. This may reduce the negative impact of his retirement in the media, but it cannot hide the fact that Ashwin was deeply hurt and hurt by the treatment of those who selected the playing XI.
From a distance, one can only guess what happened below. Was the decision to drop him from the playing XI for Washington Sundar from the Perth Test the last straw? For someone who has kept the lofty tradition of India’s rich spinning legacy shining against all odds, Ashwin’s exit from the game is nothing to be proud of.
Magazine is the author of two books, Not cricket and, more recently, Not just cricket, but a journalist’s journey through modern India.
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