Across more than 90 years of Test cricket, 23 Indian bowlers have taken at least 100 Test wickets. Of those, five have been off-spinners, but it’s safe to say that Ravichandran Ashwin and his methods are worlds apart from his predecessors. Two of them, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivasan Venkataraghavan, were part of the legendary quartet of the 1960s and ’70s, while Harbhajan Singh was the man whose match-winning boots Ashwin had the task of slipping into. As for Shivlal Yadav, he was one of the luckless few who had to succeed in what is still considered the golden generation of Indian spin.
Ian Chappell is not alone in talking of Prasanna as the game’s foremost off-spin artist. Chappell played alongside Ashley Mallett, a series-changer with 28 wickets in 1969, and was a young man when Jim Laker was destroying Australia on an Old Trafford ‘sticky’. But Chappell always said that Prasanna’s flight and control set him apart, with Venkataraghavan providing the taller, steadier option.
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For all the fuss about his doosra, Harbhajan never veered too far from the classical norms. He was always at his most dangerous on bouncy pitches where his off-breaks brought the bat-pad fielders into play. As with Prasanna or any other offie of a bygone era, , Harbhajan typically bowled over the wicket, on a line on or outside off stump.
In that sense, even the man right at the top of the wicket-taking tree was no different. Muttiah Muralitharan’s elbow and action may have been scrutinised for well over a decade and a half – leading to that famous Channel 4 show where he bowled with his arm in a cast – but for all the attention that the ‘other one’ garnered, it was Murali’s off-break that was a thing of wonder. Sent down with a freakishly fast shoulder action, it would turn almost square on just about any surface. An incredible 317 of his 800 wickets were either bowled or leg-before, a testament to his unrelenting accuracy.
Far more than Murali, Ashwin has spent many an hour wheeling away from round the wicket. But like the Sri Lankan legend, Ashwin has more than 100 wickets bowled (105) and lbw (113). Teasing both the inside and outside edge, Ashwin’s ability to land it on a paper towel has made facing him the toughest of challenges, especially on a worn Indian pitch.
But what truly sets Ashwin apart is his excellence with the new ball. Murali dismissed the opening batters on 130 occasions, but those wickets cost him more than 45 apiece. Ashwin has taken out the openers 116 times, while averaging less than 30. That flies in the same of all stereotypes and conventions we have regarding spin bowling, old balls and fading lacquer.
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Even when Jonny Bairstow was smashing him over midwicket during a rare purple patch on the third morning in Dharamsala, Ashwin seemed to be enjoying the challenge. At one point, he came up with the kind of fastish leg-break that prime-Anil Kumble would have been proud of. A flummoxed Bairstow just about kept it out.
Though he was frequently considered surplus to requirements in overseas Tests under the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri captain-coach combine, Ashwin took more than half his wickets (293) in that period. But in 14 Tests under Rohit Sharma, who’s been known to rip the odd off-break himself, his numbers are even better. There have been 79 wickets at an average less than 20 and the strike-rate of 38 seems even more astonishing when you consider that the pitches haven’t been sand pits where he just had to land the ball on a length.
In the years when he was struggling, many old-timers rubbished Ashwin’s ‘tinkering’. His non-classical methods made him a figure of suspicion. But as is so often the case with visionaries who have the capacity to reinvent themselves and their craft, it’s Ashwin who has had the last laugh.
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— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) March 9, 2024