How Ravichandran Ashwin has kept evolving over the years?

Only a handful of players can claim to have served Indian cricket the way Ravichandran Ashwin has since making his debut at the start of the previous decade.

‘Ash Anna’, a successor of sorts to legends Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, has come a long way indeed. From his days of playing tennis-ball cricket in the streets of Chennai, Ashwin has been India’s go-to spin option for more than a decade now, especially when it comes to Tests played on spin-friendly surfaces at home. And there aren’t many bowlers who can claim to have dominated batters the way Ashwin has on turners since he made his debut.

The Tamil Nadu bowler further cemented his legacy as one of the sport’s all-time greats when he dismissed Zak Crawley in Rajkot to enter an elite club — bowlers with 500 or more Test wickets in which he’s only the second Indian and fifth spinner overall.

In Graphics | R Ashwin’s stupendous rise to 500 Test wickets

Ashwin had been a tad expensive in patches in the ongoing five-Test series against England, which the Indian team has already clinched with a match to spare, and had also struggled to breach the defences of opposition batters on a couple of occasions as Ben Stokes’ ‘Bazballers’ swept and reverse-swept the veteran off-spinner merrily without worrying about the consequences.

Just when some sections of social media were beginning to think aloud if the spin icon’s powers suddenly were on the wane, Ashwin responded in style with a five-wicket haul in Ranchi that not only took him level with Kumble for most five-fors by an Indian in Tests (35), but also played a big role in helping the Rohit Sharma-led side pull off a series-clinching victory.

The 37-year-old will complete a century of appearances in the five-day format for India should he feature in the Dharamsala Test against England. Judging by his appetite for wickets and for valuable runs down the order, one can safely assume he’s got another couple of years under his belt and might just end up playing till forty. Ashwin might even be setting his sights on breaching the 600-wicket mark in that time and try and surpass Kumble to become India’s leading Test wicket-taker.

Read | ‘He’ll go beyond that…’ Kumble’s ultimate praise for Ashwin

Let’s also not forget his rivalry with fellow off-spinner Nathan Lyon who is one of only three active Test cricketers in the 500-wicket club. Ashwin might just remain motivated to stay, and eventually finish, ahead of the veteran Aussie tweaker.

So what is it about Ashwin that has made him a force to be reckoned with, especially in the subcontinent. How has the off-spinner been such a consistent wicket-taker for the Indian team season after season, year after year?

The answer to that question lies in Ashwin’s ability to grow as a cricketer, and evolve as per the changing demands of the game. It’s the ability to stay relevant that ultimately decides the longevity not just of a cricketer, but of athletes in general as well as those in other walks of life.

And in the world of cricket, Ashwin’s one of those who has aced the test when it comes to the art of adaptation.

Tracking Ashwin’s evolution as a cricketer

It’s no secret that Ashwin is one of the biggest cricketing nerds out there, and a trait of his that stands out from the rest if that of being a student of the game. Even after having played the sport at the highest level for more than a decade now and after collecting more than 500 Test wickets in nearly a hundred appearances.

Which means despite his achievements, the Rajasthan Royals bowler remains someone who’s always willing to improve himself as a cricketer and keep an eye on potential areas of weakness that could become an area of concern for him. That is something that keeps him from going stale and helps him stay abreast with whatever new tricks the batters are coming up with from time to time.

His ability to master the art of getting the ball to drift and dip besides making the most of the surface as well as his height to generate turn and bounce have been matched only by a handful since the turn of the millennium. However, it’s also his variations besides his stock delivery that have allowed Ash to remain a perpetual threat for batters.

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Ashwin was responsible for bringing the ‘sodokku’ ball — a mystery delivery bowled with the flick of one’s fingers in which the ball could turn in either direction — to the international stage from the streets of Chennai. He has also mastered the ‘Carrom Ball’, a variation of the ‘sodokku’ that is bowled with a slightly different grip of the fingers but can also turn towards either side of the wicket or go straight, depending on the direction of the central finger.

That, however, isn’t all as far as Ashwin’s concerned. The senior offie had been dropped from the limited-overs side along with long-time spin partner Ravindra Jadeja in 2017, and had struggled to make his way back to the Indian white-ball teams. That was when he decided to take up the art of bowling leg-spin.

Wrist spin had been in great demand around that time with Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav establishing themselves as first-choice tweakers in the ODI and T20I formats, and it still remains the case to this day. Ashwin decided to add that leg-spin to his armoury starting with IPL 2018, and since then, he’s been firing the odd delivery that’s turned away from the right-hander.

But it’s not just his skills with the ball that has made Ashwin what he is today. The 37-year-old has also scored 3,309 runs in Test cricket with five centuries and 14 fifties, going from someone lower down the order who could hold the bat and hang around for a bit to being considered a genuine all-rounder, at least in whites. It’s worth noting that he had been an opener at age-group cricket in Tamil Nadu before choosing to focus on spin, and Ashwin’s managed to keep those skills sharpened over the years to the point where he’s sometimes outperformed frontline batters with the bat.

And last, but not the least, it’s also his presence of mind that sets Ashwin apart from the pack and has played a major role in his evolution as a cricketer. An example of this would be his running out of non-strikers who are guilty of backing up too much despite repeated warnings, which the press especially in SENA nations have widely termed ‘Mankading’.

Who can also forget Ashwin leaving a delivery from Mohammed Nawaz fired down leg that was ultimately called a wide, helping level the scores during India’s thrilling run chase against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup blockbuster contest in Melbourne.

And his vast knowledge of the game is such that he might just get to have a debate with match officials on the laws of the game without feeling like he’s going above his pay grade.

Ashwin has been quite the gem for Indian cricket over the years and both fans as well as his teammates sure will be hoping he’s got enough in his tank to bamboozle a few more before he finally decides to call it a day.