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Vol. XXVI No. 18, January 1-15, 2017

Ashwin – the ‘priceless’ all-rounder

Partab Ramchand

Now and then a cricketer from Tamil Nadu becomes the toast of the nation. Very briefly, or, occasionally, for an extended period, players from the state have attracted considerable attention with their feats over the last 80 years. And these days the flavour of the season from the state is clearly Ravichandran Ashwin with the dependable Murali Vijay too very much around, but in the background.

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All the praise for Ashwin’s bowling – perfectly understandable given his feats and the impressive stats associated with his name – should not camouflage the fact that he has emerged as the best Indian all rounder since Kapil Dev. And that is perhaps the ultimate tribute to Ashwin’s ubiquitous qualities.

For all the efforts of pioneers like M.J. Gopalan, C.R. Ranga-chari and C.D. Gopinath who played for India in the 1930s, 40s and 50s the first cricketer from the State to really be talked about was A.G. Kripal Singh.
From the mid-1960s to the early 80s it was S. Venkat-raghavan who was easily the face of Tamil Nadu cricket in the national team. As a member of the famed spin quartet, as captain in five Tests and the first two World Cup competitions and as the only cricketer from the State to represent the country in over 50 Tests, Venkat holds a special place as far as players from Tamil Nadu are concerned.

Even as Venkat’s career was coming to an end it was Kris Srikkanth who emerged as the leading cricketer from the State in the national team. Not only that, his swashbuckling batting made him an instant hit wherever he played and he was a pioneer of an entertaining art form which was elevated further by players of the calibre of Viren-der Sehwag, Sanath Jayasuriya, Shahid Afridi and Adam Gilchrist. Few would have envisaged Indian cricket’s gay cavalier as national captaincy material, but he did lead India in a few ODIs besides four Tests in Pakistan in 1989.

Since Srikkanth’s departure in the early 1990s and Ashwin’s arrival some 20 years later there have been a few cricketers from the state who have represented India. But their appearances have been fleeting or their -success has been limited. Some have not lived up to their -promise, much like L. Siva-rama-krishnan who for one -glorious year between 1984 and 1985 was perhaps the most talked about cricketer in the land.

No such fears need be -expressed about Ashwin who has already forced himself into the record books with a number of outstanding feats with bat and ball. Indeed, his ubiquitous skills were on view as soon as he made his debut in 2011. It was well known that at the first class level he had scored a couple of hundreds besides being good enough to open the batting for his club side in Chennai. But could he make a successful transition into becoming a genuine all rounder when it came to international cricket?

Fortunately, Ashwin did not take long to show that he had enough talent to emerge as India’s next multi-skilled player. In only his third Test he came up with a hundred from No 8. Moreover, a serious approach to batting and his textbook strokes marked him out as someone who could bat higher up the order. But with the middle order having the “houseful” board firmly hung upon it with a number of outstanding batsman around, there was no way he could be -accommodated in one of those positions.

Not that it bothered Ashwin who was happy taking wickets by the bucketful and adding more than his mite with the bat down the order. But two years later when he got a second hundred again at No 8, the cry for his promotion gained impetus. Moreover, on that occasion, he shared a record 280-run partnership with Rohit Sharma for the seventh wicket while batting for almost five hours. While his batting was improving all the time, there were fears in some quarters that there might be a dip in his bowling standards. There was no need for such trepidation for Ashwin was obviously made of sterner stuff and he became in fact the fastest Indian to 100 Test wickets.

While getting his first Test hundred in 2011 Ashwin also joined the ranks of all-time Indian greats Vinoo Mankad and Polly Umrigar in taking five wickets in an innings. But he went one better a few months ago by achieving the feat for a second time. Two more hundreds in the series in the West Indies meant that Ashwin’s promotion could no longer be kept on hold and he was batting at No 6 – the right place for a genuine all-rounder.

At the moment, the focus is on Ashwin’s record-breaking bowling feats, the highlight being the second fastest bowler to take 200 wickets in Test history behind the legendary Australian leg spinner Clarrie Grimmett. But perhaps a closer look at his all round figures will also be in order. At the end of the Chennai Test, Ashwin has played 44 matches in which he has scored 1816 runs and taken 248 wickets. He has scored four hundreds and ten fifties and has 24 five-wicket hauls and seven ten-wicket hauls. Most importantly, his batting average is 34 and his bowling average is 24. The difference leaves no doubt about Ashwin being a genuine all rounder.

Ashwin has earned for himself the tag of most valuable player several times and has been called “priceless’’ by his captain Virat Kohli. No more eloquent tribute can be paid to a cricketer with such multi talented skills. And with the ever reliable Murali Vijay too around to lend more than his mite with the bat at the top of the order, Tamil Nadu at the moment is making outstanding contributions to the national squad.

Ashwin has become the first spinner to win cricket’s biggest individual prize, the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, since the award was instituted 12 years ago. He is just the third bowler, after Dale Steyn and Mitchel Johnson, to be named ICC Cricketer of the Year.

He was also adjudged Test Cricketer of the Year, only the second Indian after Rahul Dravid to sweep both awards. Indeed, the voting period – September 14, 2015 to September 20, 2016 – does not fully describe his phenomenal ascent to the top.

In that time, he took 48 wickets at 15.39 and made 336 runs at 42 from eight Tests. He has added -another 55 wickets (24.12) and 377 runs (37.70) in the eight Tests since. His influence was not limited to one format; in the voting period, Ashwin had 27 T20I wickets in 19 games. Ashwin’s -success has been instrumental in -India becoming the premier Test side this year.

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