Ravichandran Ashwin: Getting Big Breaks With The Off-break!

Ravichandran Ashwin’s career is 38 Tests old, and despite a later start than most spinners (who tend to begin in their teens, Ashwin played his first Test at 25), is still closer to the start of his career than perhaps even the midpoint. Any assessment of his qualifications to be included in that exclusive class known as the “greats,” must acknowledge this. 

- Suresh Menon

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is 30, the quickest bowler to 200 Test wickets in 80 years, and has kept the craft alive despite regular obituaries written about it in recent years, most involving the quality of bats and T20 cricket.

There is nothing like success to focus attention on the possibilities, many of them unexplored, in spin bowling. Despite the impact of Harbhajan Singh, India has not had an off-spinner to spearhead its attack since Erapalli Prasanna, who played his last Test towards the end of the 1970s. Ashwin has not only played the role, he has looked the part, bringing to his work a rare intelligence, a capacity to stash away memories of success and failure for future use, and the willingness to both try and discard new things.

Ashwin’s career is 38 Tests old, and despite a later start than most spinners (who tend to begin in their teens, Ashwin played his first Test at 25), is still closer to the start of his career than perhaps even the midpoint. Any assessment of his qualifications to be included in that exclusive class known as the “greats”, must acknowledge this.

In general, batsmen are bestowed the mantle of greatness far more readily than bowlers — another example of the asymmetry of perceptions in the sport. Often the debut series alone is enough, as in the case of Sunil Gavaskar or Rahul Dravid, even Sachin Tendulkar (although he didn’t have a particularly distinguished debut). Among Indian bowlers, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar inspired that reaction at the start.

Kapil Dev too. Or maybe we see it as obvious now, long after their careers are over. Perhaps greatness is clear only in retrospect, or at least late in careers.