Performing abroad - Ravichandran Ashwin would like to set the record straight

R. Ashwin

With 4 away tours lined up in the next one year, including the current South African one, the Indian bowling is bound to come under the spotlight. There have always been questions raised in the past about the Indian team’s ability to pick up 20 wickets in Test matches outside the sub-continent where the conditions are not very helpful for their spinners. The pacers are expected to do much of the damage on quick, bouncy pitches. However, off spinner R. Ashwin will have an important role to play as well, and he would be desperate to prove a point.

Ashwin has had an unbelievable start to his Test career which has seen him become the quickest Indian spinner to get 100 Test match wickets taking just 18 Tests to reach the landmark, beating the likes of Erapalli Prasanna (20) and Anil Kumble (21). One can argue that most of these matches were against weaker opposition on home pitches, but you still have to put the ball in the right areas to pick up wickets.

However, if there is one thing Ashwin would like to erase from his career, it would be his performance on his first overseas tour of Australia. Agreed that its not easy bowling spin on hard, bouncy Australian pitches and spinners cannot be expected to run through a side in those conditions. But, what was disappointing was not the fact that he didn’t pick up many wickets on the tour, but the manner in which he bowled.

He was hesitant to toss the ball up in the air and bowled way too short, allowing the batsmen enough time to rock back on the back-foot and tonk him over mid-wicket, or play the square cut behind point. He also lost his rhythm in trying too many variations, rather than just concentrating on his stock delivery. This time around, he would like to set the record straight and prove that he is a good bowler, home or away.

One good thing about Ashwin though, is that he has a fantastic attitude and is always willing to learn new ways of improving his art. He is also a very quick learner as he has proved time and again, which is why it will be very interesting to see how he goes in his upcoming overseas assignments. His role away from home would be to bottle one end up and build up pressure, also contributing with some crucial wickets along the way.

Ashwin is a very important player for the Indian team, not just because of his bowling abilities, but also the fact that he is a more than handy batsman at number 8 in the batting line-up. He averages an impressive 41 with the bat which is more than even MS Dhoni’s batting average.

Thus, he provides a nice cushion to the batting line-up in difficult conditions away from home, where his runs lower down the order might prove to be crucial. This is why the team management would like to persist with him in the team ahead of left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha.

Whatever happens in the next one year, it is sure to tell us more about how much Ashwin has evolved as a bowler. Let us hope, for the future of Indian cricket, that he emerges unscathed from the stern tests that lie ahead.