Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin is the premier bowler for the team in Test format. The premier off-spinner Ashwin is successful in the most extended format because of his accuracy and tactics. Ashwin has credited former Indian cricketer WV Raman for building him as a successful bowler.
Having made the debut in the Indian team in 2010, Ashwin has played 71 Test matches, 111 ODIs, and 46 T20I games so far. Ashwin has notched up 365 Test wickets at an average of 25.43.
Besides, the star spinner Ashwin also has 17 four-wicket haul, 27 five-wicket haul, and seven ten-wicket hauls in the Test format. The Tamil Nadu-based Ashwin has become an indispensable part of the red-ball cricket.
In the recent interview with Sanjay Manjrekar, he said the WV Raman had an influence on his bowling from the start. According to Ashwin, Raman was a disciplined player who brought precision in Ashwin’s bowling.
W.V. Raman helped me master my rhythm: Ravichandran Ashwin
“W.V. Raman who is known to be a straight forward and extremely disciplined man trained us to throw the ball accurately that should land above the stumps. He also maintained that I stand no chance as a spinner if I cannot hit the top of the bat of a batsman every time I bowled,” Ashwin told Sanjay Manjrekar in ESPNCricinfo’s Videocast.
“In fact, W.V. Raman helped me master my rhythm. He was the first person who with or without his knowledge, inculcated this self-conscious training inside me.
“He would keep telling me, you’re running 10% slower or you’re running 15% faster. And this put me in a great place when I started playing first-class cricket. And these are the things that I will never forget in my career. But because he was straight forward, a bit dismissive and he could put pressure on people, they started moving away from him.”
Ravichandran Ashwin, however, has not played the white-ball cricket since 2017 but he regularly features in the Test team. He last played with the team against New Zealand this year.