One of the best spinners of the cricket ball at the moment, Ravichandran Ashwin, surprisingly started off as a batsman once. But realising the need for good bowlers, he took up spin bowling, and the rest, they say is history. For quite a few years since the retirement of Anil Kumble, India lacked quality spinners. But Ashwin’s emergence as a wicket-taking bowler provided a boost for the bowling line-up.
The Chennai-born cricketer initially made good use of the soduku ball, a finger-flicked tennis-ball leg-break, which he had picked up from the gullies of Chennai. In international cricket, he used the delivery with great effect, before beginning with the ‘carrom ball’.
Thus, alongside Sri Lankan Ajantha Mendis, Ashwin became only the second bowler in the world to use the ‘carrom ball’ with great results, in the start of his career. He continues to use this delivery and bamboozle batsmen worldwide.
Ashwin unleashes many weapons while bowling, and never bowls the same delivery twice. He produces a lot of variations of the ball and flights the ball thus giving it more chance to spin. In addition to his carrom ball, he bowls the usual off-breaks and the arm ball. Such is his versatility in bowling, that he has even tried bowling the leg-breaks and the googly.
In the bowling video, filmed by BCCI.TV, Ashwin shows how to grip the ball, and the variations he tries in matches. He goes on to describe the angles which a typical off-spinner, adheres to while keeping in mind the grip on the red cherry.
The 29-year-old displays the movement behind the carrom ball, and shows the correct seam position, with which a bowler has to grip the ball properly. Being an engineer, Ashwin is well aware of the angles needed to provide the right trajectory to the ball, in order to induce more spin.
Video Source: BCCI.TV
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