R Ashwin, the bowler he was and the bowler he can be in India’s long list of hallowed spinners

Galle: “That’s a bit of a chicken and egg question I guess,” said Ravichandran Ashwin on Monday in Galle, two days before the first Test against Sri Lanka gets underway. The occasion was his impending 50th Test. The question was about India’s rise to No 1 in the Test rankings, and whether it a fruit of a consistent team combination/performance, or gave birth to that same consistency.

He went on to elaborate how “consistent performances from certain players made sure they were a constant part of the playing XI, aiding the team’s rise to No 1”, and how it works vice-versa. Sure, you can recount the core of this Indian team on fingertips, in a bid to understand who or what he is talking about – Virat Kohli led from the front, KL Rahul grew in stature, Cheteshwar Pujara completed a stunning comeback, the fast bowlers (particularly Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar) did their job with aplomb, and in the last leg of the long 2016-17 home season, Ravindra Jadeja came into his own.

Even so, you want to pause and wonder, if in the last two years, has any other player had more impact on the Indian team’s fortunes than Ashwin? Since 2015, the all-rounder has garnered 156 wickets and 896 runs in 25 Tests.

Surprisingly enough, he doesn’t want to think much about the past, not without a cup of coffee in hand, certainly not before an upcoming Test. For the cricketer in him, it is about ticking boxes and getting the preparatory process right – bowl in the spinners’ nets first, bat a bit and on either side of those sessions, get some fielding drills going. From a distance, as one looks in, this ritual hasn’t changed much over the years irrespective of opposition or conditions. The details, oblivious to the naked eye, have changed of course.

“At this stage, it is about general awareness and experience as a cricketer, sensing what I can go into a particular match with, what learning I can put into practice, and how I have become a much rounded cricketer over the last few years,” he said.

The turning point Down Under

Those last two words – few years – don’t really define a particular set of time. Maybe, he thought precisely about the past 24 months. Maybe, he stretched it back a bit, to the Adelaide Test in 2014. Or maybe, he turned back a few more pages, to Durban in December 2013, when he was first dropped from the Test playing XI. All of it, though, refers to a time when Ashwin wasn’t the bowler he is today.

The clock, in essence, needs to be wound back a bit further, to December 2011, when he found himself playing only the fourth Test of his career on Australian soil. “In the earliest stage itself, I went on a very difficult tour of Australia. It is a tough place for an inexperienced finger spinner, and I realise that now, having played there again (in 2014-15). The one thing I will pride myself on is that the second time I went there, I was a far better bowler and put into practice what I learned on the first tour,” he said.

At this juncture, open up Ashwin’s statistics from that long overseas journey in 2013-14. He went wicket-less in South Africa, toiling fruitlessly in Johannesburg. He was dropped (a tad harshly) as Jadeja took six-for in Durban and Ashwin next featured only six months later, in England. He played only two Tests there – returning mere three wickets. Indeed then, his most successful experience throughout that touring cycle was where he had visited previously – picking 12 wickets in three Tests against Australia.

It was at Brisbane where Ashwin realised his proper role in India’s overseas bowling line-up. In South Africa, a year prior, he had gone defensive trying to play second fiddle to the pacers, settling for a holding job from one end. Now, at the Gabba, he realised the importance of attacking whilst still performing that same role. However, that match wasn’t really a turning point for him. Instead, it was in Adelaide, when he was left out of the playing XI as then stand-in skipper Virat Kohli opted for rookie Karn Sharma.

Ashwin won’t admit it, however. “I don’t want to be a survivor by any stretch of imagination. I only want to be excellent,” he quipped, when asked about that episode. To be fair, any other response would only fuel rift theory between Kohli and him over that ill-conceived selection.

But it is also an undeniable fact that such a cold-shoulder coming from a stand-in captain jolted him. It is nearly undeniable that it fuelled Ashwin’s comeback into the playing XI as he has never looked back since, inspiring him to become the bowler he is today.

Just find a highlight reel, and have a look. If you want help picking, how about when he dismissed Kumar Sangakkara repeatedly here in his farewell series in 2015. Or, more recently, when he snapped up David Warner in Bangalore as India fought back in that awe-inducing second Test against Australia. Ashwin may be a spinner, thinking out batsmen, but his aggressive demeanour might induce you into mistaking him for a pacer. Why, you can almost visualise him steaming in and bouncing out batsmen in a parallel universe.

The difference, perhaps, between pacers and spinners is in how they age. Fast bowlers mellow down as time goes by, adding variables to their arsenal. Spinners already have that element in their bowling, for their job is to out-fox batsmen. With passing years, they understand better how to utilise this fully in different conditions. This is where the particular “overseas” debate crops up in Ashwin’s case.

Where Ashwin stands in comparison with Kumble and Harbhajan?

In this scenario, pull up Anil Kumble’s records from Down Under. In his long illustrious career, the legendary leg-spinner only visited Australia thrice. Much like Ashwin, his first attempt there in 1999 was a harrowing experience – only five wickets in three Tests at an average of 90. He returned with a vengeance though, picking up 24 wickets in three Tests in 2003-04 and another 20 wickets in four Tests in 2007-08.

Or, indeed, pull up the records of another finger-spinner, Harbhajan Singh, in Australia. He played a solitary Test there in 2003-04, but even on his return in 2007-08 picked up only eight wickets in three Tests. If this feels like a microcosm of the abilities of two great spinners in whose path Ashwin is expected to follow, then expand this criterion to their entire careers, splitting figures in two halves.

For Kumble’s 18-year career, the halfway mark is again that 1999 Australia tour. Until that point, he had picked 101 wickets in 30 overseas Tests, which improved to 168 wickets in 39 overseas Tests in the latter half of his career. Similarly for Harbhajan, if 2007 is considered the halfway mark of his career stretching from 1998 to 2015 (when he played his most recent Test), the results are near similar. He picked up 76 wickets in 26 overseas Tests in the first half of his career, which improved marginally to 76 wickets again in 22 overseas Tests in the latter half.

 In comparison, Ashwin has played 17 out of his 49 Tests thus far on foreign soil and picked up 67 wickets. The underlying point herein is about whether unfair expectations were heaped on a young spinner early on in his career, whilst he was simply trying to make a mark for himself, particularly on all those tough overseas tours.  

“I think I am a lot calmer from what I was then (pre-2015). I was a like a cat on a hat tin roof so to say. I was looking forward to performing desperately because sometimes my performances needed to be that much more better for me to get anywhere in my career, so I’ve always lived that way and it’s kind of changed me over a period of time. Playing all those overseas tours has shown me just how tough Test cricket can be. I’ve learned from that and got better. As a cricketer, if you can shut out the expectations of people outside your domain and set your own expectations and benchmarks, life becomes a lot easier. And I have set far higher benchmarks and expectations of myself,” opined Ashwin, looking back at what has been a roller-coaster ride for him thus far.

“Expectation” is just an external irrelevance for the present-day Indian cricketer, almost a dirty word. Instead, in the harsh spotlight environment that we have created, the mental bit is of greater significance.

Personal scrutiny is what spurs you on. And in Ashwin’s particular case, it will ultimately signify the bowler he becomes, and just where he ends up in our country’s long list of hallowed spinners.