R Ashwin recalls Jamie Overton’s 15 spikes nails anecdote to create rough for spinners | Cricket News

R Ashwin recalls an incident in county cricket, England fast bowler Jamie Overton had a shoe spike as long as his index finger. The reasoning for the spike of that length Ashwin would reveal that it helps to create roughness for the spinners later in the game, and can exploit the turn.
“During my county cricket days, I remember checking out the spikes in Jamie Overton’s shoes. One of his shoes had 15 spikes. One of the nails was this long (shows his index fingers), and when asked the reason, he said that these shoes were used to create the rough in the second innings. We don’t even have the concept of such shoes in our country,” Ashwin said on his YouTube Channel.
The former off-spinner also spoke about KL Rahul, who scored 137 runs off 247 balls in the second innings of the first Test match at Leeds in Headingly. “Truly a high-quality performer and a high-quality batsman. Whenever he goes overseas, he gets those big scores in the first Test, and in England, even in the last series, he played like a million dollars. He played like a Rolls-Royce!” Ashwin said on his online platform.
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“If a Bengaluru-based cricketer named Rahul plays for India, adaptability is automatically their middle name,” Ashwin added.
Controlled batspeed
There was another marked difference between the two. Rahul all through his innings, kept his hands close to his body and merely pushed at the ball. Since stepping into England, his bat speed has been controlled. He has not been hurried or edgy. Rahul, in the two innings here has been subtle and sure.
It was this tightness of technique that helped him deal with that crack outside the off-stump towards the Howard Stand. There was one patch of rough in the good length area from where the ball would suddenly take off. Rahul had to deal with the unexpected and ugly bounce at least 4 times but he was up to it. Watching the ball closely he would remove himself from the line, withdraw the bat at the last microsecond, play with soft hands to make it drop well short of slip or even let it hit the body. Pant, a left-hander, didn’t face the problem as it was outside his leg-stump.
Despite the heroics from KL Rahul in the second innings, India managed to lose the Test match five wickets. Ben Duckett in the second innings scored a timely century of 149 runs to lead the chase.