R Ashwin and his fight to remain relevant

"The fox knows many things - the hedgehog one big thing".

Isaiah Berlin picked out a fragment out of Archilochus' vault and translated it into one of the most popular essays. Like a joke, explaining an analogy too is like dissecting a frog. For the uninitiated, it means that though the fox might have many tricks under its sleeve, the hedgehog knows only one, but it is above all the tricks that the fox might know.

That is the ideal analogy to use to compare the Ashwin who first emerged to the present day version on display now.

R Ashwin arrived on the scene or should I say burst onto the scene in the biggest event of the cricketing calendar - Indian Premier League. A street-smart bowler was the need of the hour, enter Ashwin.

A street-smart bowler is the one who is able to read a batsman's mind and plan his next move and he did exactly that. In no time he became the Indian captain's, go-to man. The man who he could turn to when the team was in a crisis situation when the other bowlers (read Ravindra Jadeja) were taking a beating.

Like a true team player, he answered the call of duty and did exactly what the captain and the team expected of him. At this time he was just bowling traditional off-spin and occasionally the carrom-ball ( A googly, bowled like you're flicking the striker in carrom). And he wasn't doing bad, in fact, he was now fast-forwarded to the Test team. He replaced the Turbanator- Harbhajan Singh, who was past his peak and was struggling to take wickets.

Ashwin was quickly regarded as one of India's greatest spinners. Experts even started comparing him with the greatest Indian off-spinner to have played the game - Erapalli Prasanna. And his performances also put a strong case for this comparison.

At this point in time, Ashwin had started playing all possible formats of the game. And he excelled in all of them. No one termed him as a one-trick-pony or a Hedgehog up to this point.

With the volume of cricket being played these days and with the volume of cricket he was playing, came the need of variations and more variations. Now he developed the skill of bowling a more accurate carrom-ball, the arm ball, leg spin and even swingers. He had now become like a fox with a lot of tricks under his sleeve. As his prowess grew he became more lethal.

As it is often said, "With great power comes great responsibility", and with greater responsibilities, comes the burden of expectations. Every time Ashwin had the ball in his hand, people expected him to take wickets. When he didn't he got severely criticized by the experts and badly trolled by the keyboard warriors.

He became desperate. Desperate to take wickets so he could prove the critics wrong and respond to the keyboard warriors. In this process, we lost the bowler who once churned out marathon spells at one-go. He became impatient.

The result is evident - he has now become more dependent on his variety, rather than bowling traditional off-spin. He is seen bowling leg-spin or the carrom-ball or the swingers more often. Seldom bowling off-spin, hardly able to deceive the batsman through his flight - which by the way was a pleasure to watch.

The player who was playing all 3 formats of the game was now reduced to just playing Test matches. The virtue of patience that he has lost is the most important aspect of the game in Test matches. The bowler who was once the spearhead of the bowling attack would now be brought to the attack so that fast bowlers could take a breather.

This flaw was exposed in the ongoing Test series against England. He has hardly been successful. Has the Fox in him overshadowed the Hedgehog? For once can he fall back to traditional off-spin?

Can we have the pleasure of seeing the vintage Ashwin back, bowling marathon spells and taking wickets like he used to? Only time will tell, but as a fan of this magician, all we can do is hope.