Maestro of drift and turn
In test cricket, 39 runs rarely hold any significance unless it comes after batting for over three hours and miraculously helps save the match for the country. Of course, such innings finds its rightful place in cricketing history. It also does something more intangible - it inspires.
That memorable knock of 39 by Ravichandran Ashwin in the Sydney test, during the invaluable 62-run partnership with Hanuma Vihari (23), may have inspired many young cricketers and even team members.
It also admittedly inspired Ashwin. In the following weeks, it must have grown on him like a vine and further steeled his determination to dig deeper in his quest to become a better player.
Post Sydney test, he works more like an artist, using the 22 yards of pitch as his canvas. And just like a painter creates an art work, Ashwin creates dismissals.
In complete control of his craft, he even seems to decide the trajectory his ball would drift with the revolutions his fingers impart to it. He appears to be in possession of almost a mystical power that would make the ball dip just short of batsman’s anticipation and reach. And then the inevitability of the endgame will play out its own course - either finding the batsman plumb in front or finding an edge or rattling the stumps.
What makes a player extraordinary is his ability to anticipate opponent’s move in advance. Ashwin seems to have mastery over it. He creates an illusion with a couple of innocuous deliveries and then adds a lethal doze to the ball that eventually proves fatal.
In the second Chennai test of the ongoing India-England series, the way Ashwin plotted Ben Stokes’s wicket in both the innings beautifully illustrates his artistry. In the first innings, the ball drifted in with the arm, dipped on Stokes as he played inside the line, and then spun away to knock down the off stump.
On the second occasion, the ball had a similar trajectory, though this time it hurried Stokes for pace and before he could offer the full face of the bat, the ball took the outer edge and Virat Kohli completed a fine diving catch in slips.
On both occasions, Stokes’s expression of deep resignation on his way back almost evoked a feeling of sympathy. To be dismissed by the same bowler on 11 occasions must be mortifying.
Later, Ashwin gave a batting master class on day-three on a rank turner. With his fine 106, Ashwin exhibited exemplary courage and class.
Another batsman who was completely mesmerised was Ollie Pope. In the pink-ball Ahmedabad test, Ashwin chose almost identical deliveries in both the innings to castle Pope’s off stump. Each time the ball had hurried on to Pope, turned just enough to beat the bat and crashed into his off stump. The 23-year old must be hoping the match never enters his long-term memory.
Ashwin would have liked the scalp of a more accomplished batsman as his 400th test wicket but he wouldn’t complain the way he outfoxed Jofra Archer to reach the milestone at Ahmedabad in only 77 tests. To have reached the landmark in second fastest time after legendary Muttiah Muralitharan is a testimony to Ashwin’s unwavering quest for excellence.
At 34, Ashwin still has a few more years before he hangs his boots and when he finally does, he will surely take the glorious legacy of Indian spin bowling to even greater heights.
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