Very happy to bag two consecutive five-fors overseas
Ravichandran Ashwin was in his elements against Sri Lanka as he returned with figures of 6 for 46 on the first day of the first Test match played at Galle.
On a day where Ishant Sharma looked like picking up a wicket on every ball in his first spell, Ashwin took the honours by putting the Indian team in the driver's seat at stumps on Day 1. His figures not only goes on to emphasise his dominance with the ball in hand but also showed that the man has come of ages as a spinner after going through a lean period in alien conditions.
While addressing the post-match press conference, Ashwin spoke about his performance and the importance of bowling out the opposition cheaply.
"I think I have done it before. Anyways I am very happy to do it on a consecutive basis. I think it is more about how the game is. I am not looking at my personal milestones. I want to get better. It is, I think the process in place, which is perfect. I am looking at it from that perspective. I want to move ahead and do better for the team. It is an extraordinary performance to bowl out a team in a day, especially in Sri Lankan conditions after having lost the toss." said Ashwin.
Ever since Ravi Shastri became the Team director, the players have backed the former India captain as Ashwin went a step further while talking about his influence.
"Ravi Shastri is a very positive influence on the team. When I was not playing in Australia, he came to me and told me why I was not playing. He gave me a bit of sympathy about why I am not playing. It is not generally something I look for. He has been a very positive influence. He tried to talk to me about things he experienced when he was in Australia.
That's where it took off. I am someone who likes talking and discussing cricket. Especially with him around he is someone who enjoys the same pattern. When we talk and discuss a lot, new opportunities open up. To try a few things and the improvement has already started. A lot of credit needs to go to Bharat Arun as well.
And lot of credit needs to go to Ravichandran Ashwin also. Because I have taken stock of my own bowling, being a lot critical of myself,raised a lot of questions and got fruitful answers from both of them which has actually enabled me to try and discover myself. I think nothing is a permanent feat in life. I think you have to keep improving.," added the offspinner.
Ashwin outperformed the other Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh who has been a legend in his own rights. While getting into comparisons has never been his forte, Ashwin stated, "As I said this question keeps rising again and again. I would like to put an end to it. As far as I am concerned, I compete with myself.
Harbhajan Singh is a legend of Indian cricket and we need to respect that and let him be in his space. For all you know he might well come up and do well in the next innings. He didn't get enough opportunities here but I don't see anyone as competition. I compete with myself."
While wickets have come for Ashwin, what has set him apart from the rest of guys is his composure and reacting to that, he said, "Composure is generally something you associate with yourself, when you find yourself in a tough situation. That's when it helps you to come out on top. I think it is about understanding situations and adapt.
Two wickets have fallen and the seamers have done their job. I thought Ishant bowled beautifully this morning. I though he was going to nick a batsmen off every delivery he bowled. After that my take was very simple."
He further added, "I just wanted to get into my stride pretty strongly and start with a good rhythm. I think Sangakkara's wicket in the first over helped. From there on it was about keeping yourself focused and also about planning. You have your own game plan. You start chipping away.
Then getting two or three-wicket hauls, breaking partnerships, which is what I did with Angelo Mathews. I always plan my spells that way. You can be really relaxed, stay composed knowing that the next wicket is going to come rather than be in a hurry."
One of his greatest assets has been, how relaxed Ashwin looks with the ball in hand these days and it is no secret that the Indian tweaker has worked on it.
Speaking about his transition, Ashwin said, "To me everything seems little. To all of you it seems big. So i don't know where to start. I have gone through with my action quite a bit and if I am convinced with something I go ahead and try it. Not always do I expect everybody to accept that.
But when I went back to Australia I wanted to put back my experience to the best of use. When I went in 2011, I was that youngster who wanted to get five wickets on the first day of the Melbourne Test. That was the mistake I did."
"But I aspired to be one and I would rather err in an aggressive side. I wanted to go back to Australia with a set plan, be ready and consistent, and use my pace, vary it, be a little quicker. What best suited me was what I wanted to take on board. I changed my action during IPL and then for a couple of years in one-day cricket. Having done that I had a lot of experience to draw from. Which would suit me best.
Once I had done that I was pretty effective in Australia and from there on I wanted to see how effectively I can make it work. It was a more repeatable action. I spoke to Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun, who gave me confident answers. From then I wanted to take it forward and improve it every single day."
The ball came out really nicely from the hand on Wednesday as Ashwin just vindicated the statement by adding, "I think what happens at the other end of the wicket is what you deliver from this end of the wicket. Everything is dependent on the crease as far as the bowler is concerned. Especially for a spinner. I can't talk from a fast bowler's point of view. But for a spinner, what you do at the bowling crease results in what happens at the other end. I want to get my loading right, I want to get my run-up, rhythm right, the pace of my run-up right. There's a lot of things that goes into it. That's why you always see me bowling a lot of warm-up deliveries. Even before the game has started, I bowl almost 40-50 deliveries, so I want to give everything right - at least give myself the best opportunity to succeed."
While talking about the most prized scalp of Sangakkara, the 28-year-old said, "It helps when you can send Sangakkara and Mathews back with good catches, doesn't it? It was great. These things happen, and you should also have the composure to say that they will drop a few and you have to accept that because they are putting in the effort. As far as my fellow cricketers go, I can only see from what effort they put in. I don't see anybody lacking in any effort during the practice sessions, they practice as hard as anyone else - say a Michael Clarke or an Ian Bell or someone. That's all you can expect from your fellow teammates. One of these days, they might pull such catches off, on another day they might drop a sitter. You must have the composure to say ok, it will happen, and take it in your stride."
Chopping and changing in the slip cordon doesn't help and the man hailing for Tamil Nadu gives a very interesting take on slip catching.
"When you are not comfortable in the slip cordon, it is very important to move out of the slip cordon. If somebody wants to move out, they probably told the captain. I am not aware of it but they might have told the captain about not being comfortable there, which I do. I used to stand at first slip. When I was bowling a big spell, like a 10-over spell, I wouldn't prefer standing at first slip because I might drop a catch because I am lacking in concentration. So that could have happened with Shikhar Dhawan," said Ashwin.
Speaking about the pitch and how it played, the Indian spinner said, "I don't know. I am not quite convinced with the bounce aspect of it. I thought the wicket was really tacky in the morning and it was just deviating enough. There was not as much of fizz and bounce in the wicket. I think as the game goes on, it is going to get really slow. You will have to work harder to get wickets. From that aspect of things, we need to bat really well and see where we go from there."
Sharing his experience of bowling in tandem with Harbhajan and whether or not he likes switching ends from time to time, the inventor of using the soduku ball to perfection in international cricket said, "I think it was more about what the team required then because Harbhajan was going through a good spell from the other side, so Virat wanted me to bowl from the other side. I am not someone who is very choosy about which end I am bowling from. From there, I was ok to bowl from the other side but I think he wanted to swap ends immediately so it was a very short spell. And also, when you are playing five bowlers, there are these things of short spells happening from time to time, you just got to accept it."
Before signing off, the man behind putting Sri Lanka in shambles concluded by saying, "If I find something that suits my cricket, I take it on board. The wicket was really tacky in the morning, as the game goes on it might get slow."
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