It seems that Ravichandran Ashwin wants to be an all-round spinner. After impressing one and all with his off-spin and carrom ball over the years, the Tamil Nadu lad is now eager to exhibit his new variations in the 11th edition of Indian Premier League.
Ashwin will lead the Kings XI Punjab franchise in IPL 2018. He was roped in by the Punjab-based franchise for INR 7.6 crores during the IPL auction in January.
“It’s not that I’m going to ‘try’ leg spin or anything. I’m just going to be the best bowler that I can be,” quoted Ashwin while speaking exclusively to kxip.in.
“Leg spin or off spin, I don’t think that is very important in T20 cricket. You’re just a bowler. You see fast bowlers bowling 20 slower balls these days. It doesn’t make them a spinner. I just want to be the guy who has variations up my sleeve and I want to have a go at it. Whichever variety suits whichever batsman on that particular day is what I’ll be trying,” he further added.
During the Iran Cup match between Rest of India and Vidarbha in Nagpur last month, Ashwin was displaying his leg-spin skills. When asked about this radical switch, the 31-year-old said evolution is the way to go forward for all cricketers.
“For anything there needs to be a precedent and probably in this case I might be the precedent. Unless you try something, you’re not sure it’s going to work, so I reserve my judgement on this topic right now, but I believe that is the future of the way T20 will be played. Multi-utility cricketers will be able to do more than the monotonous stuff that they are picked for,” Ashwin remarked.
SPECIAL: Introducing @ashwinravi99, the leg spinner!
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 14, 2018
We have seen him bamboozle the best batsmen with his off breaks, but the ace spinner has added another dimension to his bowling and that is leg spin. Here’s the latest from R Ashwin’s bag of tricks https://t.co/8M9XvWgZZ3 pic.twitter.com/mctkWQCUTB
During the course of his 8-year long international cricket career thus far, Ashwin has seen some drastic changes in limited-overs cricket. Without a doubt, the game nowadays is increasingly favouring the batsmen. No wonder, Ashwin feels it is imperative to have as many options as possible in your sleeve.
“If you look around the world, there is a market for people who turn the ball away from the bat. We must have options up our sleeve,” Ashwin concluded.
The 11th edition of IPL will kick off from April 7, with returning franchise Chennai Super Kings taking on the defending champions Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium. Kings XI Punjab will play their first game against Delhi Daredevils on April 8.
