Spin-nerd Ravichandran Ashwin’s 25,714 calculated steps to reach Mt 500 | Cricket News
A content smile spread on Ravichandran Ashwin’s face, when he grabbed his 500th Test scalp and waved the ball towards the audience on the stands. The smile captured both the sheer joy and satisfaction that seized Ashwin when he reached a significant milestone of a spectacular career. He is now the ninth highest wicket-taker in Tests and the fifth highest among the spinners. Filter the achievement further and he is India’s second-most successful bowler ever. Anil Kumble with 619 wickets sits at the top of the pile.A more illuminating number in Ashwins’s career is 25714, the number of balls he has bowled to complete his 500th. Only the Australian Glenn McGrath has brought wickets at a faster clip. The more you dissect his numbers, the more head-spinning an experience it would be, and the more convinced you would be of his place among the all-time greats of the game.
But beyond all these—the wickets, the numbers, the match-winning spells, the five-fors and 10-wicket hauls, the glory balls—there was something far deeper about his art that makes him more than a mere programmable wicket-taking machine. That is his devotion to grasp his art, exploring the wicked nuances and myriad possibilities of manipulating a cricket ball. In spirit, he is a pilgrim of his craft.
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Take A Bow, R Ashwin 🙌 🙌
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/FM0hVG5pje#TeamIndia | #INDvENG | @ashwinravi99 | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/XOAfL0lYmA
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 16, 2024
In that sense, he is one of the rare originals of the game. He is both a scientific romantic, and also a romantic scient. The worlds of Ashwin are many, rather he is one world in many. There is the classic, who bargains his wickets with grand old trickery of flight, drift, dip and turn. There is the modern with a reverse-flicking carrom ball. There is the experimental who toys with his action, release points, angles and seam position. If Shane was the king of tricks, Ashwin was the alchem, still exploring the magic formula in his spin laboratory.
When we think about Ashwin as a bowler, we tend to do so in the compound: great series rather than great spells, an archetype of excellence rather than any particular moment. You cannot flip open any page of his career and get the full picture of his career. There is no Ball of the Century, or Ball from Hell that defines him.
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Only the second #TeamIndia cricketer to reach this landmark in Tests 🙌 🙌
Congratulations, @ashwinravi99 👏 👏#INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/bP8wUs6rd0
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 16, 2024
There is sometimes tedium that comes from repetitiveness, in the way he dismisses some batsmen in the same way time and time again. Among his scalp-l are Ben Stokes (12), David Warner (11), Steve Smith (8), Joe Root (6) and Kane Williamson (5). Not to forget the four successive times he got Kumar Sangakkara.
Neither could a single ball define him. Watching Ashwin is like lening to a long symphony. The build-up should be watched to appreciate the crescendo, the whole spell needs to be devoured in attention to admire the wicket. It’s how Ashwin gets the kick from his wickets, through elaborate planning and plotting. The thought, the tease, the torment and the kill.
The lone quibble could be that he has not been as successful outside Asian, as he is in the subcontinent. As many as 397 of his wickets were reaped in Asia. It’s often the case with finger spinners from Asia. Rare are the opportunities—only 25 of his 98 Tests (and 71 wickets) have come overseas. Unfortunately, his time coincided with his greatest spin peer Ravindra Jadeja, whose superior batting skills has seen him nudge ahead of Ashwin in overseas Tests.
Erasing the anomaly would be the unticked box in his bucket l. He might have already begun prepping for the tour Down Under. It’s this nerdish obsession that has been his guiding light to Wicket No 500.
