Ashwin: the spin-conscious scientist

R Ashwin spent the last night before the test very excited in the Adelaide Oval networks. It was an optional training session and the one turning was one of only two, Mayank Agarwal, the other, from the XI who was playing to make the trip. His time there began with a lively chat with bowling coach Bharat Arun. For nearly 20 minutes, he appeared to demonstrate, very animatedly, his various plans to Australia’s key hitters. They included it showing the courses he planned to set up, the shots he was looking for Steve Smith & Co’s to attempt, and most importantly, the ways he was preparing to get them out. Then he walked away and began to practice the deliveries that he would use to execute his plans. This was Ashwin doing what he does best. This was Ashwin, the cricket scientist who got lost in his own private laboratory, without the lab coat.

Ashwin the person is his own man. He’s not the type to change for anyone. Few Indian cricketers have carried the kind of self-confidence and self-awareness that the 34-year-old possesses in his own being. He has a strong opinion on everything related to cricket, and especially his own cricket. And you know that he will never depart from them. He will always be the guy to do it his way.

Ashwin the bowler is never afraid of change. In fact, it is forever in a state of evolution. He hugs it. He accepts it. He thrives on it. Since the day he burst onto the scene nearly a decade ago, Ashwin has never shied away from changing and adapting on the cricket field. He has been the scientist who wants to carry out his experiments in public view, in front of an audience and not behind closed doors.

This is Ashwin’s fourth test tour of Australia. Ever since he picked up a ball at the Drummoyne Oval two weeks ago, it has been apparent that the only particular aspect of his bowling alley that he has been working on is overshooting. Although it would be unfair to say that this is Ashwin trying to look more like his counterpart Nathan Lyon, especially considering that the Tamil Nadu spinner does not enjoy comparisons, it is certainly a case where he borrows a formula and take its own spin and patent it. And since his first spell on Drummoyne, where he played with his cap on through the various networking sessions he’s had, Ashwin only seemed to feel better and more comfortable doing it.

So when he had Smith top a delivery that was thrown in a pitch and jumped a bit on Friday (December 17) night in their first encounter, it was no surprise that Ashwin ended up doing an Imran Tahir with his celebratory run. . It was the union of all the hard yards he had made and all the little adjustments he had worked on before his big showdown against Australia’s best test hitter. This was her Eureka turnaround moment.

To understand the essence of how Smith was cornered, it is important to focus on the two deliveries that led to his firing. Because it is with these two that Ashwin not only groomed his man, but also showed his next level of evolution as a world-class spinner. Both times, Smith reached forward to defend the ball. Both times, he realized that he was not quite on the ball court. Both times, the ball sank and landed a little shorter than Smith expected.

However, the master hitter had time to adjust enough to keep them out. After being beaten for length twice in a row, Smith’s natural reaction was to fall behind in his crease for the third installment and seek to deny it from the backhand. But this is where the other feature of the top spin delivery came in, as he bounced a bit more when pitching, eventually catching the bat joint on the way to Ajinkya Rahane for his umpteenth grip on Ashwin’s bowling alley. As in the conclusion of most successful experiments, Ashwin’s brazen delight was the culmination of a process he had set his mind on perhaps since before he landed on these shores more than a month ago.

As with someone as analytical as him, Ashwin’s process of getting a hitter out doesn’t just begin once he has the ball in his hands. He can be seen constantly working from his fielding position, whether in the middle of the field or on the square field. If you are not shadowing your bowling alley or chatting to yourself, you are closely watching the batters move in your crease.

With Ashwin, true excitement isn’t always about the bottom line. Sometimes that is almost a fact. It is more in the journey or in the steps taken to get there. It has to do with how you always challenge and support yourself, in equal measure, to improve at your craft. And at Drummoyne it seemed at times that he had added a slightly exaggerated flourish to his charge, where his right elbow thrust back before going into his final release movement. Maybe it was just to make sure he cocked his wrists to then help him oversteer to generate more oversteer. Not forgetting the slightly bent middle finger arm that he uses to allow for the top twist.

The fact that he was now able to put that twist to work without having to resort to that elaborate plugin in his action, both online and at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, only tells you how far along he is in his science. Because suddenly that elbow movement seems to have disappeared. The overspin now seems to have organically become part of his natural repertoire.

Looking from afar through a pair of binoculars, this is more conjecture than fact, especially considering that like most master craftsmen, Ashwin isn’t always too keen to share the tricks of his craft.

Ashwin’s other two higher-order grounds also came out of deliveries in which hitters Travis Head and Cameron Green misjudged the length or trajectory of the ball. It had a lot to do with the way he made the ball sink and then jump.

It was also obvious that Ashwin enjoyed his confrontation with Marnus Labuschagne more as the day progressed. It was the battle of the cricket nerds in which neither was willing to give the other a quarter. Ashwin also continued to alter his fields, sometimes having as many as six gardeners in charge of the legs. However, Labuschagne survived the talk and challenge and staged what should be a memorable competition between the two for the next month. Over time, it was fitting that Ashwin fired Lyon himself with a ball, where the length was miscalculated and led to the leading edge being caught.

The best Ashwin ever released on Australian soil is believed to have been during the Adelaide Test on the previous tour two years ago. Friday’s performance likely overshadowed that one.

The best part about Ashwin is that the learning and growth don’t stop even if his detractors can sometimes raise a flag about the impact it could have on his inherent skill set. There will be a few more experiments (he’s already been playing a lot of leg breaks and carrom balls) that the test star already has up his sleeve. And it’s only a matter of time before I launch them on a match stage. Because the experiments never stop. The cricket scientist never stops.