Indian Cricket's Spin-Off

When it comes to Ravichandran Ashwin, you can only talk about how his spin bowling becomes evidently evolutionary with every match he plays. From off-breaks, carrom balls, googlies and arm balls, Ashwin has come a long way with his bowling and achievements.

Determined to take wickets; Image Source: Cricket Addictor

"I see a lot of myself in Ashwin. He is a fantastic cricketer with a lot of work ethic. Obviously, he is a far better batsman than me." — Anil Kumble

If one had to imagine Ashwin as a player, they would end up seeing him as that tall off-spinner in the team who made his way to where he is by experimenting with the carrom balls and finger-flicking leg breakers he grasped way back. He took techniques learnt through the gullies of Chennai and turned them into untraceable bowling styles that resulted in hard and effective bowling.

Born on 17th September 1983, Ashwin completed his schooling at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and St. Bede's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School. His school days spent in St. Bede's made him inclined towards cricket and he started off his journey there in the cricket academy. To this date, Ashwin is grateful to the coaches he had there since all his bowling evolution began from the academy itself. Ashwin has also completed a B. Tech in Information Technology from SSN College of Engineering.

Inspired by the soduku balls of Ajantha Mendis, a young Ashwin who was just playing his first season of first-class matches, went home with inspiration to create something better out of it. Adjusting his fingers and working on it tirelessly, Ashwin made his reputation invincible once he had grasped this bowling style of his own. He had creatively combined his brilliant arm balls, clever brain, controlled leg-breakers and new carrom balls together into that perfect embodiment of a needed bowler. Although his debut in ODIs worked out great for him, the 2012-13 tests saw a brief period of struggling.

Ashwin's bowling was needed at that time since Anil Kumble had retired already and Harbhajan Singh was almost dwindling. He was one of those players whose value spiked after having seen him perform outrageously during the Indian Premier Leagues. Taking wickets when needed, and becoming the Man of the Series of the 2010 Champions league had helped him big time.

The bowler's achievements in T20 cricket helped him earn a place in the national side, beginning with ODIs first he gradually stepped into his debut for tests in 2011-12. Ashwin had also played for the 2011 World Cup team but with very few opportunities. Assisted by Harbhajan Singh later, Ashwin built a lot of himself.

Taking nine wickets in his maiden test, he had become the second-highest Indian debutant who won the Man-of-the-Match award. All his first 16 tests saw him fired up with his five-wicket hauls who was now close to beating Erapalli Prasanna's record of 100 wickets in 20 tests.

Dismissing Kumar Sangakkara in the 2015 three-match series against Sri Lanka, Ashwin had finished the series with 21 wickets, surpassing the record of most wickets by an Indian bowler in a series against Sri Lanka. He was again made the man of the series and was thus ranked number 1 in ICC Test Bowling Rankings 2015.

Going by the current stats, Ashwin is has been the fastest to reach 250, 300 and 350 wickets in test cricket. In March 2021, he was ranked number 2 among the all-rounders in Test cricket. He has also been the first Indian cricketer to take five wickets along with a century of his own in the same test match but on three different instances.

With countless achievements, hopping from Chennai Super Kings to Delhi Capitals, P.S. - he isn't playing for IPL 2021, sorry! Ravichandran Ashwin has successfully reached a lot of milestones in his entire career. Today he is an inspiration to new bowlers while being in the hall of fame himself. Cheers to the off-spinner who took his bowling through a journey of evolution.