Ashwin's riddle

Ravichandran Ashwin was playing mind games with Dan Lawrence. It was the last ball before lunch on Day 2 and the course player was deliberately taking his time. He then exited his career before starting over. Lawrence seemed to be waiting for the inevitable. The ball was finally thrown from around the wicket, ensuring that the angle was naturally slightly wider. The ball landed on the stumps, spun and jumped. Lawrence’s nerve jab went straight to Shubman Gill on the short leg. England’s No. 3 was on his knees, overcome in thought and overtaken by cultured mockery.

Ben Stokes, unsurprisingly, seemed more confident. He was waiting for the right moment, ignoring the difficult moments. No batter would have cared about the play, the misses and the screaming before the leg on this Chepauk field. Ashwin then expanded on his deception. At first glance, the ball looked like a half volley, only the official had thrown it across the crease from around the stumps and it had been deflected directly toward Stokes. It took the form to attach it to the midwicket and did not cross. Error. He spun past the gust to hit the stump. The ball was also slower in the air. Ashwin’s average speed during England’s early innings was in the mid-80s (kph), according to television statistics. That installment hung in the air a bit before arriving.

His brain, as always, was ticking furiously. There was a delivery when he hit Stokes on the back leg, after spinning the ball past the defensive stab around the stumps. He wanted a DRS, his teammates weren’t so convinced and he silenced them with this logic: “This is exactly how it fell on Mohali!” It was five years ago and there was a wonderful expression from Kohli, who silently made the T sign. It turned out to be missing, but that was beside the point. Ashwin makes hitters from memory and spontaneity, as all good bowlers do.

Ultimately, he landed Stokes, the ninth time he’s claimed him, as his 200th spot from a southpaw and 266th in the home patch. Harbhajan Singh’s account of 265 plots in India was upgraded. One day when Ashwin had a milestone date, he was putting on an exhibition on the use of sewing and different angles.

Lawrence’s scalp was a load case at a wide angle and extended the arm even more. After the day’s game, Ashwin revealed that he had an argument before throwing the last ball before lunch. Rishabh Pant was in favor of throwing it from over the wicket, but Ajinkya Rahane had “agreed” with Ashwin’s idea of ​​throwing it from around the stumps.

“He (Lawrence) likes to use his feet a lot, which we saw in Sri Lanka. We wanted to get our plans right when the batter came in first and not give away too many runs. In the past, I might have been a bit shy about using angles. But using different angles and release points, especially when there is help; those angles look bigger than they really are, ”Ashwin said.

Returning to the use of stitching by the outside spinner, the successful combination of side twist and undercuts kept England batsmen guessing. The undercutters were thrown by rolling their fingers under the ball so that it landed on the leather and had a different rhythm off the field. Scrambled stitching was another variety.

“One thing I learned better and started doing a lot more is varying the position of the stitching, using the crease, and creating different angles. I’ve also used the angle over the wicket effectively in the last six months against lefties, ”said Ashwin.

On surpassing Harbhajan, he said: “When I was watching the 2001 series between India and Australia, I did not even imagine that I would become an Indian spinner. I was still a hitter from my state. He was trying to speed up a career to hit and play for the country. He wasn’t even sure if he would continue to play for India.

“A lot of my classmates back then used to tease me because I used to try bowling like him. From there, breaking your account has to be incredibly special. I did not know. Now that I know, I feel happy “before adding with a smile,” Sorry, Bhajju paa! ”.

Overall, Harbhajan has 417 windows from 103 tests. Ashwin now has 391 scalps on his 76th test. Anil Kumble towers over the rest with 619 132-game proving grounds of which 350 were tallied at home.

It would be rude to undermine Ashwin’s effort even though the pitch is a rank change. He was asked about the degree of difficulty of the hitters. “If the ball is moving around 140-150 clicks off the platform, that has to be more challenging than someone moving at 85-90k,” Ashwin replied. The countryside helped him, but he also harassed the English with cunning, skill and brains.

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