England Vs India 2018: I Realised Bowling Speed is Very Important, Ravichandran Ashwin

Who would have expected that a spinner would wreck havoc on English Test wicket? In a surprising move, Ravichandran Ashwin delivered it for India against England when it mattered the most.

Initially, he rattled the defence of England’s leading run-scorer Alastair Cook with a magical delivery later, injected double-wicket blow in middle overs. He finished with 4-for at the end of day one to keep India on the top.

I was working on simplifying my actions: Ravi Ashwin

Speaking of his stupendous performance on day one, Ashwin reiterated that he had worked on his action and the speed. He felt that keeping an accurate speed on the delivery is very crucial for the spinners in the contemporary cricket.

Ravichandran Ashwin further spoke about his stint with England county side Worcestershire and the learnings before returning to India. He went on add citing the dry surfaces that England offer on day one of the Test matches.

“When I came here for County cricket last year, the one thing I realise was the speed at which spinners had to bowl here. Wickets are extremely slow, even on the first day. Even if there is bounce, if you don’t get the pace right, the batsman will get a lot of time to play the same ball on the front and on the backfoot. This is something I realised very quickly,” Ashwin said while speaking to bowling coach on BCCI.tv.

 

“Even in the last 12-18 months I spend a lot of time playing club cricket. I was working on simplifying my actions a bit and make sure I can get more body into the ball, try and create something in the air and it worked really well,” he added.

I  tell myself that I had to work on my action again: Ravichandran Ashwin

Probably, Ashwin would be the sole bowler in Indian cricket who often comes out with something unique.

Recently, he added different deliveries to his arsenal and then changed the action of his bowling many times.

Meanwhile, Ashwin explained how things would challenge him while working on those factors. He went on to say that he motivates himself and trains to come up with an action which works well for him.

“But what happens when you are trying to do that something in the air is that the body sometimes gives up, you are touch short or touch fuller. So in one of those pursuits, I thought simplifying my action was important,” he added.

 

“Because I went through a very good phase of bowling with that particular action and hence a lot of bad habits had crept in with my arms coming in, so those are the things I had to really work on against my own will and try and tell myself that I had to work on my action again,” Ashwin inferred.

However, Ashwin started the United Kingdom tour with the frontpage headlines. It would be interesting to see how things would pan out for the Tamil Nadu-based cricketer. With the dry patches on its way, Ashwin will be a lethal player for India.