‘Ashwin bowled like Kumble’: Mumbai batsmen get a dose of the off-spinner’s ‘leg spin’

Through their stellar performance overseas, wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have more or less cemented their position in the Indian limited-overs setup.

Off-spinner R Ashwin, who has been sidelined from India’s limited-overs set-up, is not sitting back and letting things slide. He, in fact, is adding to leg-spin to his variations.

The first real glimpse of the ‘leg-spinner’ Ashwin came to the fore on Thursday as he bowled a few overs of spin on a sluggish track at Chennai’s SSN University ground where Tamil Nadu clashed with Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

The 31-year-old picked up three wickets during his stint and put Mumbai in a spot of bother at one time as they were left tottering at 79/5 in their chase of 183.

He initially bowled three overs of his traditional off-spin, but then changed tactics and began bowling leg spin, a craft he has been trying to perfect over the past couple of months.

His ploy had immediate impact as Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare fell in the first over.

In his first over bowling leg spin, Ashwin beat Suryakumar Yadav thrice, before dismissing Tare on 17.

“I wouldn’t say we were taken off guard, His action was like how a traditional leg-spinner would bowl,” said Tare after the game. “He bowled with an action like Anil Kumble.”

Tare further said: “Ashwin is one of the great spinners of world cricket. He knows where to pitch the ball to gain maximum impact.”

“But, there was no mystery as such. We felt the pitch assisted him in a big way.”

‘Plan for IPL’

Surya followed him back to the pavilion soon enough as he holed out for 21 trying to smash Ashwin away for a big one.

Mumbai’s No 3 batsman Siddhesh Lad, who scored a century in his side’s previous game against Gujarat, said the wicket was two-paced and offered swing early on and had a lot of turn when they began their chase.

“Ashwin is a master bowler. We know how well he bowls. He appeared to be at ease even as he changed his action,” said Lad who perished early in the innings on 10.

Ashwin would strike again in his second spell as he sent back Shivam Dubey (28) to end a crucial 71-run stand between him and Shubham Ranjane that took Mumbai close to the target. Ranjane (59*) would eventually take Mumbai across the line with two wickets to spare. Ashwin would finish with commendable figures of 10-1-35-3.

“This is part of my plan going into the IPL,” Ashwin had said ahead of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

“I am just trying to build my armoury. I used to bowl good legbreaks with my offspin action when I was playing league cricket in Chennai. Over a period of time, in a search to get my stock ball right, I obviously had to cut out a lot of those things,” he had said.

“I had possessed a lot more variations. Having bowled off-break as the stock ball for almost 10 years, trying to change things around is challenging. But I don’t really settle for anything. At no point in my career, I thought ‘this is it’ and decided to settle for the rest of my career.”