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Happy to contribute: Ashwin
Saturday, May 01 2010
Chennai: Away from the buzz of the IPL and back home after winning the trophy, Ravichandran Ashwin could put his feet up for a while and savour the success that at one stage looked beyond the reach of the team.
The tall, 23-year old off-spinner, after a quiet start to his IPL career, developed into one of the best in the competition, repeatedly playing a lead role in the Chennai Super Kings’ victory.
Entrusted with the new ball to open the bowling, Ashwin showed a big heart and courage to operate in the power plays. Such was his performance that he became a major hit the fans and looked upon as a match-winner or at least someone who set up the game for his team.
It was hardly a surprise then that Ashwin won the award for the “Most Economical Bowler” in IPL-3 as he came away with a haul of 13 wickets in 12 games and an economy rate of 6.10 (average 22.53).
Excerpts:
Q: Congrats on winning the IPL Trophy. Your thoughts winning “Most Economical Bowler” award in IPL-3.
Ashwin: It is great. I must say that this is just a start. I should maintaining the momentum and continue to do good work for years to come. I was over the moon when I got the award. It was a hard earned one. I was struggling a lot and was down sometimes, and had to pick myself up. I feel extra happy that I contributed to the team’s success.
Q: Compared to the earlier two tournaments, in the third IPL event, you had been part of the playing eleven for number of matches. Did you visualize as the event commenced that you are going to be in this kind of role?
Ashwin: I have been having a great season running in to this year IPL. Not only this season and four good seasons in the domestic levels, I have been shinning well. Every time I ran into IPL, I was always hoping…I mean… irrespective of whether I am going to get long stints. In fact, I used to dream of getting every wicket against every team in the IPL. Watching the two editions of the IPL, our team was really struggling on the bowling front. We were always leaking runs and even with 190, we were not able to defend.
It is very easy to sit outside and say that I will do this and that. Thinking from outside and when we were leaking runs, I would always put myself in their shoes and say probably I knew that this batsman is going to come at me and I would have done a better job. I always used to think that way.
I had the chance to watch the games at close quarters all of the first two seasons. Watching from close quarters, I gained lot of experience and I used to tell the person sitting next to me, probably VB or someone else, that this over is vital and the batsman will come hard. I was able to make such judgements. Probably, those judgements always helped me in the middle this year.
Whenever I thought that the batsman was going to come at me, I always had the option of bowling a fuller length or probably reducing the length. Sitting and watching the first two editions had definitely helped me greatly. More so, this edition was very important because I was knocking at the doors of India selection. I definitely thought that the captain and the coach would show more faith in me and probably give me a more chances, better than the one or two games that I got in the second edition.
I have played cricket with great amount of zeal and passion. I always play to excel. Even in my studies, I try my best to excel. I wanted to be in thick of action. I always wanted to do the KING SIZE. I make sure that if I get a chance, I make a great impact.
Q: You have shown an ability to think on your feet. Is this something you learnt or natural?
Ashwin: As a bowler, if you really watch the game, you can analyse whether the batsman is going to succeed coming at you or you will take his wicket. I am pretty good at batting too. Being an Indian, obviously I play spin well and being a batsman, I know how easy it is to hit a spinner. If you want to hit a spinner long, it is going to tough if you are going to sit back in the crease. Unless and until the ball is really short, you cannot hit over the mid-wicket for six or four. Otherwise, you have to step out and use your feet to dominate a spinner.
All those powerful hitters of the ball around the world cannot play spin that well. I just made up my mind and whenever I felt that a batsman was going to take a chance at me, I was sure that I can control that delivery pretty well and I held back. If a batsman was going to step out to me, I am very sure that I can bowl that delivery for a single or a brace maximum. I have the option attacking the batsman and if the batsman is not going to come out at me, I always take the chance of attacking him and get a wicket. If you pick a wicket, automatically the batsman coming in will not attack you and play you off.
Q: What have you to say that ever since you started opening the attack for CSK, you were not giving away as many runs compared to bowling in the middle overs?
Ashwin: All the games that I played, I had bowled inside the power play period. Before opening the attack and bowling the third or fourth over in power play, my intention was to cut down the run rate and be smart. I do not think it is a bad thinking on the part of a bowler. It somehow did not work because the batsman was trying to play for boundaries. They were trying to be smart as I was. I have given easy boundary options along the ground. When I tried and made my come back, I decided that I should not give them anything loose. That was the compromise I made to myself. Another compromise that I made was that this is 20-20 game and in this format you are a hero or a zero. I preferred not to be moderate.
Q: You had any role model in your younger days?
Ashwin: As a spinner, I did not have any role model. But as I grew up as a spinner, I saw lot of Harbhajan Singh on television and I always used to love him for the way he used to be aggressive and come hard at the batsman. Especially when in challenger role, he was fantastic. I admired him as a cricketer. But, if you talk about a cricket and a role model, it is only Anil Kumble for me.
Q: Great bowlers like Prasanna and Bishen Bedi always used to say that in longer version of cricket a spinner had to lure the batsmen to come out and play them and their top spinners will help them get wickets. Do you have any such attributes in you?
Ashwin: It is very hard to be comparing those kinds of bowlers including Venkatraghavan. I was not born in that era. Whatever I have heard of the Indian quartet is phenomenal. I do not know whether any spinner in the world possesses those attributes, but if anyone says that he has those attributes, I am really happy for them.
Honestly speaking, that is one of the arts of spin bowling. You are not putting speed on the ball and the batsman has to do all the work. That is exactly phenomenal job that they have done. Those days, so many good bats were not available and even if a mistimed shot will not go off the ground. And, the skills that they possessed they could really do whatever they wanted to. Honestly, if you give me an opportunity of watching Bedi or Prasanna or Venkat bowl these days, I will pay millions to go and see them in action.
Q: You were denied a hat-trick against Knight Riders by Umpire Simon Toffel. You had also said that it happens and the Umpire had said sorry to you. When you look back, do you wish the umpire had not erred?
Ashwin: A hat-trick is something very special to any bowler not only in T-20 but also in every format. The way the dismissals happened – one was stumped and the other was caught at fine-leg and there was a stumping and a catch at backward short-leg that were denied. It was like classical dismissals. It was not like hit on the fence or caught on the line. So, I was really happy with the overall dismissals in th
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