Has World’s No.1 Test bowler R Ashwin lost his mojo in away games?

He’s the No. 1 Test bowler in the world, but he is not even the No. 1 spinner when India play Tests in the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries. Last week, when he picked up match figures of 12 for 131 in the first match against West Indies in Roseau, it was an Indian record-equalling 10th time he had taken 10 or more wickets in a Test, a feat hitherto achieved only by Anil Kumble. Yet, there is no guarantee that when India travel to South Africa for their next series in December, he will figure in the playing XI.

It can’t be easy being R Ashwin. For all his exceptional skills – and they are exceptional, without a doubt – he has been deemed ‘expendable’ by successive team managements when it comes to away games. Ravindra Jadeja, a superior package because of his left-handedness and his electric fielding, gets the nod when India base their attack around four pacers and a solitary spinner, a bitter pill to swallow for someone of the calibre of Ashwin, but a reality he has come to accept with increasing maturity and sagacity.

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Ashwin, the ‘scientist’

The facts are irrefutable. Ashwin is India’s second highest wicket-taker in Tests, with 486 scalps. Only the legendary Kumble (619), inarguably the country’s greatest match-winner, slots in ahead of him. His Roseau haul also catapulted Ashwin to 709 international wickets across the three formats, again behind only the champion leg-spinner from Karnataka (953). By themselves, these are stunning numbers, but clearly, there is more to Ashwin than just cold statistics and bland figures.

He often goes by ‘scientist’, but typical of the Indian mindset, that’s not always meant as a compliment. His former head coach Ravi Shastri refers to him as ‘Ashtronaut’ in genuine appreciation of his craft, his intense desire to keep improving and adding to his repertoire, and his innate willingness and ability to elevate his bowling to a fine art with the assistance in no small measure of science and experimentation that is undoubtedly a byproduct of his days earning an engineering degree.

Ashwin doesn’t particularly enjoy being pigeonholed as a ‘thinking bowler’ because he believes that perception hasn’t worked to his advantage. But that’s what he is. Despite the volume of work he has put in and the exemplary success he has enjoyed in 13 years at the highest level, there is a restlessness about him that’s hard to miss. That restlessness stems from an undying pursuit of excellence, if not perfection.

There can’t be a better example of someone refusing to rest on his laurels, someone content to just stick to the tried and the tested. Every day at practice, Ashwin is trying out new things, determined to add a trick even if it might not always be visible to everyone. That, allied with a shrewd brain that helps him multi-task and pick up subtle nuances from his observation of batsmen, has encouraged himself to keep reinventing himself and keep asking questions even on the most unresponsive of surfaces, such as in Ahmedabad in March when he flummoxed Australia’s top-order on an absolute shirtfront on his way to a commendable five-wicket haul.

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Home vs overseas

Ashwin ceded his status as India’s primary overseas spinning option after the Southampton Test against England in 2018. Despite being less than fully fit, he made himself available for a crucial game – England were 2-1 ahead going into the fourth Test. Where his English counterpart Moeen Ali hit the rough repeatedly and took five for 63 and four for 71, Ashwin battled to complete his action as his side strain became a growing impediment. In the end, he finished with three for 124 in 51.5 overs as India went down by 60 runs to surrender the series. Since that game, he has featured in only 12 of India’s 26 away Tests, and played as the lead spinner in South Africa early last year largely because Jadeja was unavailable through injury. In admittedly seam-friendly conditions, he snared three wickets in as many Tests, at an average of 60.66 while taking a wicket every 21.2 overs, by no means a reflection of his skills considering how heavily the dice was loaded in favour of the faster bowlers.

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Especially in India, the propensity to affix an asterisk to every performance has ensured that Ashwin’s overseas record has often been questioned. Only the exceptional few have as impressive figures in unfamiliar and unhelpful conditions as they do at home and while there is a definite skew between Ashwin’s record at home and away from home, that is both understandable and acceptable. Especially since the coming together of a pace attack built and nurtured assiduously by Virat Kohli during his protracted stint as captain, India have used that mode of operation as their primary weapon, with excellent results. And while Indian cricket is fortunate to have two spin-bowling all-rounders of the stature of Ashwin and Jadeja to pick from, that hasn’t been to Ashwin’s benefit in the last five years.

Ashwin to vie for 500-wicket mark at Queen’s Park Oval

In less than two months’ time, Ashwin will turn 37. His white-ball international career is behind him, and the long gaps between Tests don’t help, but to his credit, Ashwin has not only managed to keep himself relevant but come through as a better, more potent, incisive and tangible threat with each passing game. His omission from the final of the World Test Championship against Australia at The Oval last month, on the most spin-friendly of tracks in England, was baffling; as if to show up the folly of the think-tank, Ashwin ran rings around the crease-tied Caribbeans in Roseau as he comfortably outbowled Jadeja.

Over the next few days from Thursday at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, which will host the second Test, Ashwin will leave no stone unturned in his bid to close in on the magical 500-wicket mark. West Indies has been a happy hunting ground for him – 29 wickets in five Tests – but Ashwin has bowled only five overs at this venue, in August 2016 when rain reduced the final Test to 22 overs. On this, his last tour to the Caribbean, Ashwin will be determined to leave his mark at a ground which ushered Sunil Gavaskar into Test cricket in 1971, and where India pulled off one of their most memorable triumphs of all time in 1976, hunting down a fourth-innings target of 403 with consummate ease.

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