QUOTE
“Every Test innings is a chance to get a five-for. Every Test is a chance to get a ten-for,”
-- R Ashwin
It takes a fair bit of courage for a cricketer to say that every Test innings is a chance to get a five-for and every Test is an opportunity to bag a ten-for. This is all the more daring when an Indian player says it. The same line will be construed as confidence when the going is good, but could also be interpreted as arrogance in tougher times.
What matters, though, is that Ashwin is walking the talk more often than not. Last Monday, October 10, he lived up to his mantra and bagged yet another five-wicket haul (6 for 81) that derailed a New Zealand innings that was sailing smoothly. It was his 20th fifer in just 39 Tests.
Ashwin’s performance in this innings, and the series, is laudable considering how hard he has had to work for his wickets. The pitches, compared to India’s last home series against South Africa, have held up much longer. India’s spinners can’t just release the ball and expect wickets.
New Zealand have been tough opponents too. They posed yet another challenge in the final Test when Martin Guptill and Tom Latham added the highest opening partnership of the series (118). India needed to play the waiting game “ a facet of Test cricket they haven’t encountered in recent times.
Ashwin accepted the challenge, triggering a collapse where the visitors lost five wickets for 30 runs. It included a passage of play post lunch where he removed Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Luke Ronchi, apart from playing a part in Guptill’s run out, in the space of just four overs.
“It was pretty special,” said Ashwin. “I think it’s very important for me to get into a good rhythm. Through this series, I have not really started in a fine rhythm. I’m kind of … I don’t know where it is, but I’m trying to get my alignment and rhythm properly “ it’s taking me a few overs. Once I go through it, and when my body starts going completely into the ball, the spell starts getting better. And that was one of those spells after lunch.”
As Ashwin himself says, it wasn’t the first time in the series that ‘rhythm’ evaded him early on. In the first innings of the Kanpur Test, he took as many as 16.2 overs to get his first wicket before finishing with a four-wicket haul. Here, his first nine overs went for 36 runs. He picked up 4 for 8 in the next nine, apart from running out Guptill. It is this waiting game that Ashwin is willing to go through.
It is also no secret that Ashwin is a cricket freak. He cannot stop watching, talking, or thinking cricket. Any format, any team, any time. He even calls himself a ‘cricket scientist’.
This extreme analysis of cricket helps Ashwin. In the 2012 Bangalore Test against New Zealand, he drew Williamson forward and forced an edge to slip. Ashwin remembered, and used the same strategy more than four years later.
For his part, Williamson too has tried to adjust by avoiding the lunge and playing Ashwin off the back foot. But all three battles between the two this series has been won by the bowler. Twice, Williamson has chopped on to the stumps while trying to cut. Once, he has been trapped leg before.
This isn’t the first time Ashwin has outworked the best batsman in the opposing side. He had Kumar Sangakkara four times in as many innings when India toured Sri Lanka last year. He also dismissed Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers twice each last year when South Africa visited India.
“When I start my spell, it’s all about getting into a good rhythm and being able to accelerate and get through the crease fast,” he began when asked how he frequently gets the better of the best batsmen. “Once I get into that good rhythm, I think I can beat any batsman in the world. That’s where I stand right now.
“I (also) come into a series with a plan, especially taking off from where Kane Williamson got out in Bangalore when they came here last time. He lunged forward and got out at slips. He just lunges outside the off-stump, so that’s one of the things I thought I would repeat in this series.”
While the Williamson dismissals were planned, Ashwin is also dynamic in his strategy. In the second innings of the Kolkata Test, Latham was solid in defence and sweeps, cruising to 78 well-crafted runs.
Ashwin changed the line “ floating one outside off and lured Latham into a false drive that resulted in an edge to the wicketkeeper. Helping him in such subtle changes when the going is tough is another spinner who has taken quite a few wickets in Test cricket: Anil Kumble.
“We have good discussions on cricket, on what we could be doing for different batsmen,” said Ashwin. “He gives different plans about how we can change up when we go into lunch or tea. If somebody is batting well, he gives you different ideas about what fields you can have, how differently I can bowl. Throwing the ball wide into Tom Latham at Eden, for instance, was Anil Kumble’s idea in the tea break. He was the one who asked me to push the lines wider and see how it goes, and it worked. He’s also a person I can go to and talk to and take feedbacks. I enjoy the conversations I have with him.”
Apart from his top-class bowling, Ashwin is also a massive asset to the side for his batting abilities. That came to the fore in West Indies recently, giving India a balance they have struggled to attain especially overseas.
So, is he turning into the allrounder India need?
“From the day I made my debut, I have been an allrounder. You people are noticing it only now!” It was yet another response toeing the thin line between confidence and over-confidence, but Ashwin has mastered the art of walking on the right side of it.
