In and out of the white-ball team, Ravichandran Ashwin played two World Cups. He made a comeback in T20Is when finger-spinners were written off in the shortest format. He also played the ODI World Cup even though he was not in the scheme of things. And with two miracles happening, Ashwin considers himself as “one of the greatest success stories of finger spin in white-ball cricket”. Ahead of his 100th Test, Ashwin told former India captain Anil Kumble that wrist-spin or finger-spin made no difference.
“Look, one of the greatest success stories of finger spin has to be how I have made a comeback in the T20 side and the ODI side over the last few years. It’s not something I am saying that it has happened to me, so hence it’s a success story. It’s sort of telling you that these are narratives, that things keep going up and down and at the end of the day these are narratives,” Ashwin told Kumble on a JioCinema chat.
Finger-spinners not less efficient
Since the 2017 Champions Trophy, there was an emergence of wrist-spinners in white-ball cricket. Rashid Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Adam Zampa among others became more important in T20s than Ashwin with six different deliveries in an over.
And with that, Ashwin was all but sidelined from T20Is and ODIs.
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Since 2017, Ashwin played only five ODIs and 19 T20Is. However, he made a comeback ahead of T20 World Cup 2022 when not many expected.
“There is nothing called finger-spinners being less efficient and wrist-spinners being more efficient or vice versa. The fact remains that the number of repetitions you give as any spinner or any bowler and the amount of awareness you have over your skill, will definitely supersede what part of the skill you possess,” Ashwin said.
“Because, I believe, as time passes by people tend to do less work. For example, I want to land the ball at length on a certain line, if I don’t have enough repetitions and don’t have the ability to replicate it among 50,000 people, then it’s worth nothing. In my view, the more you do, the more you conquer pressure. Finger spin, wrist spin, fast bowling, slower balls, bouncer, all these things won’t matter. If you are a good bowler, you are a good bowler, doesn’t matter what you do.”
