The spin trio of R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra has wrecked havoc on the visiting South Africans in the test series. The spinners have made life miserable for the South African batsmen, who have been all at sea against the Indians. India’s bowling coach B. Arun has been very impressed by his side’s spinners and has showered praises on them.
“Ashwin was always a good bowler, but now he is growing in stature with each series because his awareness levels have improved tremendously. He is one of the best off-spinners around, but the challenge was for him to say, ‘I will trouble the best in the world with my off-spin’,” Arun said. “The fact is that he is a lot more consistent in bowling his off-spin right now. That means his variations are a big surprise. Of course, he has got a lot of them up his sleeve, but he uses them very sparingly. The more you use a variation, it ceases to be a variation. To determine the right opportune moment to use a variation is a big challenge for a bowler, and an even bigger challenge is to get it right.”
Arun praised Ashwin, “There is a lot of pressure out in the middle. To go amid such pressure and say, ‘I am going to bring out this exact ball’ takes a lot of confidence. If it doesn’t go right, there will be a lot of consequences. But Ashwin is in such space right now that he is not worried about that, because he is extremely confident about his bowling. This is the X factor in his bowling right now,” Arun said.
Praising Jadeja, Arun said, “Jadeja is someone who depends on his accuracy. He is spot on and attacks the stumps. He also has an uncanny knack of bowling straight on a wicket that offers turn. This makes him extremely potent and all the more difficult to counter.”
“Mishra is a ready-made bowler. When he walked into the Test side in Sri Lanka, he had 500-odd first-class wickets under his belt. So, he obviously knows exactly how to bowl on such wickets. Also, for a leg-spinner, he is very accurate, that makes him special,” concluded Arun.