Ravichandran Ashwin has grown leaps and bounds over the years and has been the most preferred spinner for India in all formats. After being impecunious in the Test series against Australia down under Ashwin has regained his rhythm back and quite understandably the wickets in the subcontinent helped his course. In the recently concluded Sri Lanka series, Ashwin was the tormentor for the Sri Lankan batsman picking up 21 wickets. The real icing on the cake was picking up the wicket of Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara on four occasions.
One the biggest asset in Ashwin’s bowling is his combined intelligence with patience. In an interview to ESPNCricinfo, Ashwin spoke on length about his resurgence, the reason behind his improved version, what patience has to do with cricketers and also why he thinks his current form can be the best of his life.
Stating that the process of his perfect spell started in Australia and was carried through to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Ashwin said he wants to take control of the batsman.
“I think a complete performance has to be the spell I bowled in Bangladesh, at Fatullah. That was one heck of a spell – bowled over a period of two days, maybe a bit more. That was a delight. The way the ball was coming out, the way it drifted, the way it curved in so late, that made it really special. I think it was a process starting with the Test series in Australia. If I can hold onto this, this will be the best form of my life,” Ashwin told ESPNCricinfo.
And Ashwin gives the major chunk of the credit for that to current India bowling coach Bharat Arun.
“The bowling coach we have right now is a major reason behind my resurgence. I don’t like to give credit to anybody just like that. And if I don’t like anybody, I will be very honest about it. If I think their opinions are not right, I will say their opinions are not right. So this coach, how is he different? He empowers me. I have questions for which I have got answers. He gave me reading material, which is pertinent,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin is the quickest to 100 wickets in India’s history, and he feels that he is a far more mature and knowledgeable bowler from what he was two years ago.
“From two years ago, what I am today, I am far more mature, far calmer, far more knowledgeable, far more in control of what I am doing. The knowledge I have right now is far more than what I had a couple of years ago.
“What a mistake all of us make when we are talking about a particular cricketer is that we say they are trying too much, the control is not there, there is no patience. These are clichéd terms. If only patient cricketers were good cricketers, then only yogis could have been good cricketers. It’s more about skill, and the amount of knowledge you acquire over a period of time, which you can put in practice. All these things go into making a good cricketer,” he added.
Ashwin also spoke on how he worked on his ‘loading issue’ on delivery stride, and his limitations that made him realise what he needed to work on when he was dropped from the side for a while.
“Very, very often people tell me ‘your weight needs to transfer. Your leg needs to come over.’ Now unless I am a disco dancer, it is not possible to do it. How can you transfer weight just like that? If I can transfer weight just like that and if I don’t transfer weight, I have got a big attitude problem. I have got a technical issue somewhere, which is not related to my legs alone.
“There is a loading issue. Whatever happens in the lower body is in direct relation to what is happening in the upper body, as far as bowling is concerned. This is again what I gathered from Arun. I look at other bowlers and I ask him questions. That’s how I look to learn,” he added.
Ashwin also said his focus in on becoming an exceptional bowler and not the number one.
“I don’t think like that. I don’t strive to be indispensable. I strive to be exceptional. There is a difference between the two. I want to be excellent, I don’t want to be indispensable. Indispensable is holding onto something,” he said.
Quote credits: EspnCricinfo