Ravichandran Ashwin's mother advised him to switch from pace to spin

Often, the fathers are the ones who are the behind the scenes heroes for successful cricketers and we have two shining examples of it in the present Indian Test team.

One is present India Test skipper Virat Kohli who has been inspired by his father Prem Kohli and the other is Cheteswar Pujara’s father Arvind who has influenced his son to a great extent.

Reportedly, Arvind also helps Cheteshwar focus on an important match and advises him on how to start an innings.

But things are just the opposite for star Indian bowler Ravichandran Ashwin as his mother has been the one following closely all his footsteps.

In an interview to One India, Ashwin’s father Ravichandran said, "I only took my son to the training and different other places for participating in the matches. But it was his mother Chitra who actually did the coaching right from his childhood!"

He added, "I had to note down our son's performance in each and every match from his childhood. Even, I used to note Ashwin’s batting and bowling performance at the nets also. I had written the comments of his coach after everyday training. The reason was that his mother used to watch my notes and then start advising her son."

Ashwin started off as a lanky fast bowler who had a long run-up but his mother asked him to concentrate on bowling spin.

Ravichandran revealed, "One day his mother told him that his long run-up did not look good at all. And it was a waste of energy. Chitra asked her son to begin spin bowling instead of pace. And from that day Aswin began to concentrate on spin bowling."

According to Ashwin’s father, his mother started noting down all of his son’s stats in a book when he was playing first-class and club cricket.

Chitra had also advised Ashwin to never ignore his batting, a suggestion from which the cricketer is gaining rich rewards.

The Indian off-spinner has been in terrific form this season both with the bat and ball. He has till now 235 wickets from 42 Test matches at an average of 24.75 with best match figures of 13/140. With the bat, his mean is 34.98 and has scored 1749 runs with the highest score of 124.

In One-Day Internationals Ashwin has grabbed 142 wickets from 102 games at an average of 31.73 with best figures of 4/25.