WV Raman the person who helped me master my rhythm, reveals Ravi Ashwin

05/02/2020

Ravi Ashwin has revealed that it was WV Raman, the now-coach of the Indian Women’s Team, who was responsible for ingraining discipline and consistency into the off-spinner’s bowling, even helping him master his rhythm. Ashwin further feels that he has a purple patch ahead of him in Test cricket.

Despite being a magician who can cast many a spell with the ball in his hand thanks to his truckload of variations, Ravichandran Ashwin’s USP throughout his career has been his accuracy, something that has helped him become one of the best red-ball spinners in the history of the game. The off-spinner’s simplicity in bowling coupled with his control and consistency has seen him claim a staggering 365 wickets in just 71 Tests, with his discipline - and not variations - proving pivotal to his success in the longer format.

Speaking to Sanjay Manjrekar, the Tamil Nadu spinner revealed that it was former Indian cricketer and now-coach of the Women’s team WV Raman who helped him become more consistent, disciplined and prolific. Ashwin revealed that Raman sub-consciously ended up ingraining discipline into his bowling, by reminding him of subtle changes that the latter observed in the off-spinner.

"WV Raman, who is known to be a straight forward and extremely disciplined man, trained us to throw the ball accurately that should land above the stumps. He also maintained that I stand no chance as a spinner if I cannot hit the top of the bat of a batsman every time I bowled,” Ashwin told Manjrekar in ESPN Cricinfo.

"In fact, WV Raman helped me master my rhythm. He was the first person who, with or without his knowledge, inculcated this self-conscious training inside me. He would keep telling me, 'You're running 10% slower' or 'you're running 15% faster'. And this put me in a great place when I started playing first-class cricket. These are the things that I will never forget in my career.”

Ashwin, who has been playing in the IPL since 2009, also had words of appreciation for Afghanistan off-spinner Mohammad Nabi, who has made a name for himself as one of the most valuable spinners in T20 cricket. Ashwin described Nabi as a ‘great spinner’ and joked that even during the middle of the night, the latter would be able to get his line and length spot on.

"Mohammad Nabi is a great spinner in T20 format. He is able to change his line and length at will and that's because he has done these repetitions in the longest format. If you wake Nabi up at 3 am in the night, he'll be able to bowl at the sticker of the bat, he will then be able to change his line to wider, to closer or yorker."

Having found himself in and out of the Indian Test side due to injury concerns and a mild dip in form, Ashwin, however, believes that a purple patch might be in the offing for him in the game’s longest format, should his body stay intact.

"I am good at T20 cricket. If my body holds up, I see a purple patch coming up for me in Test cricket.”