'Leg-spinner' Ravichandran Ashwin sets his sight on IPL 2018

Many of the cricket fans were taken by surprise when Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin tried to bowl with a similar action to that of Windies spinner Sunil Narine, a few years back. Come 2018 IPL, and we might well get to see the ‘leggie’ in Ashwin. With 150 wickets from 111 ODI games at an economy under five in limited overs cricket, the Tamil Nadu spinner has made a mark for himself.

But with the arrival of Indian wrist-spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, Ashwin’s outings in colored clothing took a beating. Yadav and Chahal cemented their respective places in the Indian side since the Champions Trophy in England last year.

Ashwin turns leggie

31-year-old Ashwin has now added a new weapon to his armory in the form of leg-spin. And he has shown glimpses of his newfound strength during a domestic match against Gujarat on Monday.“This is part of my plan going into the IPL. I am just trying to build my armory. I used to bowl good leg breaks with my off-spin action when I was playing league cricket in Chennai,” Ashwin was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

He said that it is going to be challenging but at the same time clarified that he doesn’t want to settle for anything.“Over a period of time, in a search to get my stock ball right, I obviously had to cut out a lot of those things. I had possessed a lot more variations. Having bowled off break as the stock ball for almost 10 years, trying to change things around is challenging. But I don’t really settle for anything. At no point in my career, I thought ‘this is it’ and decided to settle for the rest of my career,” he added.

Kings XI Punjab will surely relish the sight of watching him bag wickets. But as he says, it has been a painful journey as it didn’t come naturally to him. “First time I was bowling leg spin, we were working on some actions on how to gain momentum. How I can make a repeatable action work for me. For example, my arm doesn’t go 45 degrees which is perfect for a leg-spinner. I am more upright. I have to adjust my action. It has been a painful ride.” he said.

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