We all know Ravichandran Ashwin to be terrific spinner on the field, who is capable of spinning a magical web around a batsman with his off-spin. Apart from the regular off- spin, his legendary ‘carrom ball’ also adds to his arsenal. In the recent years, he has developed himself into the strike bowler for India. He has a knack of scalping key wickets and leaking very few runs, turning him into both a wicket taking and an economical bowler. We have also seen him stepping up with the bat in crucial situations, whenever the team needed him. Till now he was considered a tail-ender, a spinner who can bat a little bit. But in an interview to bcci.tv, Ashwin himself has revealed certain unknown facts about him which propels us to think otherwise. According to Ashwin himself, he used to play club cricket regularly and had been batting top of the order. Over there he has been a regular number 4 and has been scored lots of hundreds. Unfortunately he never got the opportunity though to do the same for his state, Tamil Nadu as the first five positions were already filled up.
“I think batting is a lot easier when you bat in the top order. It gets tougher as you move down, because there is a lot of pressure or there is nothing at stake. So, there are only two scenarios that you go into. Whenever there is pressure, I enjoy batting and there is that greedy batsman inside me who says that one day I should bat at No. 4 for India. I want to get better and aspire to be a No. 4 batsman. It gives me the steel to bat well wherever I bat and that is what helps me get better.”
Future will tell us if he gets to bat in his favourite batting position and if he can recreate the same magic with the bat as he does with the ball !