IND vs ENG: How the greatest half-sleeved off-spinner R Ashwin battled against England’s Bazballer

“I thought Ashwin would get it (500 wickets) in the first Test itself. It’s okay …” Ravindra Jadeja would crease into a lovely smile at the press conference a day ahead of the third Test. It was said in jest perhaps, but it’s a good way to frame R Ashwin’s toughest battle yet at home against an attacking England.

Ollie Pope swept him out of attack in Hyderabad and he bled five runs per over in the first innings at Visakhapatnam. But he rose to the occasion in the chase when the game hung in balance or rather was actually tilting towards England by taking out Joe Root, Pope, and Ben Duckett.

The remarkable off-spinner needs just one more wicket to become the second-fastest after Muttiah Muralitharan to reach 500 Test wickets. It will be an astonishing achievement for an off-break bowler. Without the wrist kicking into action as it did for Murali and leg-spinners like Shane Warne, you can’t rip the ball as much and should have lesser revolutions on the ball. It also explains the influx of off-spinning bowling actions cloaked in full-sleeves. To his credit, Ashwin is the best short-sleeved off-spinner of the recent vintage. It’s time he is featured in an advert for smart half-sleeved casuals, taking a crack at the full-sleeved sly men. But in the here and now, a greater challenge awaits him in Rajkot: Can he soak up the Bazball attack and do his thing?

Breathtaking bowling brilliance on Day 4 propels #TeamIndia to a thrilling victory, leveling the #INDvENG series at 1⃣-1⃣! ✨

#IDFCFirstBankTestsSeries #JioCinemaSports #BazBowled pic.twitter.com/LRBWENqRut

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) February 5, 2024

The art of Ashwin lies in entangling the batsmen into meanderings from which they are unable to disengage themselves in time. But England went after him with a purpose that he has seldom seen.

Six overs into the first Test, Zak Crawley had already reverse-swept Ashwin twice to the point boundary. A couple more sweeps later, Ashwin switched to over the wicket and placed one man at covers, leaving the off-side relatively barren. A flighted delivery that ripped through the bat-and-pad gap or a floater that took the outside edge was expected; instead the ball was picked from the cover boundary as Crawley creamed it. Ashwin abandoned that line of attack and reverted to round the stumps.

Repeatedly, he was forced to abandon his plans in that first Test. When he slowed up his pace to Duckett after a few reverse sweeps to see if he could upset the bat-flow and induce a mistake, the left-hander adjusted with a fine reverse-lap past slips. Even though they were predetermining their shots, England were retaining enough nuance.

When he turned over the wicket after Pope reverse swept him, the right-hander charged him to ping the straight boundary. When Ashwin tried to trap him on the leg-side with a ripping off break that started from middle, Pope calmly nurdled it to the fine-leg boundary. Nothing was working for Ashwin.

Amidst this frenetic effort to adapt to England’s tricks, there came a moment in the 54th over of the innings in that same first Test when he beat Pope with a beauty that turned in from outside off, threaded the bat-and-pad gap but whistled over the leg stump. But almost immediately, perhaps trying to anticipate a reverse sweep, Ashwin would go real full next ball and be met with a crashing conventional sweep. Next ball, Ashwin switched to round the stumps, and this time, Pope pulled out the reverse sweep.

Visakhapatnam: India’s bowler Ravichandran Ashwin celebrates the wicket of England’s batter Ben Duckett during the third day of the second Test match between India and England, at Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, in Visakhapatnam, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (PTI Photo)

Glimpses of mastery

It was enthralling stuff: a tinkerman innovative spinner at top of his game humbled with his own medicine of inventiveness. Not until the chase on the fourth day of the second Test could Ashwin really get any skin in the contest. It was aided by a Bazball that had lost its composure and was over-boiling on adrenalin rush. Joe Root was living on the edge with over-the-top adventurousness. It was as if he couldn’t help himself, going after everything.

Here is where Ashwin seized control. He slowed down the pace, got the ball to hang in the air longer, and sent a floater from round the stumps – and Root rushed down the corridor and toppled over the board, miscuing an almighty heave. Pope wasn’t as carried away as Root but he too was trying to whiplash everything on sight. Ashwin sent an over-spun ball from round the stumps that bounced a lot more than Pope expected to carry the edge off an attempted cut. It was a fine match-turning spell but the question still hangs in the Rajkot air: if England retain Bazball without spilling out of control, can Ashwin tame them?

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