Ashwin's "carrom ball" is nothing but a fillip of the index finger, which looks all but roll off the tongues easy on our TV screens. But, once the red cherry descends its way down slowly, cuts back and across from outside leg to off in a jiffy and flips the off bail - its quite the sight to behold.
In hindsight, this is perhaps what they call - the spin balling equivalent of Wasim Akram's around the wicket burst.
When Akram balled those two magical balls in the 1992 world cup, to get rid of Chris Lewis and Allan Lamb in two successive delivers, you said "Wow! the guy could ball."
And, as I pen this down from a speeding Kerala express - Ravichandran Ashwin has quietly become the 2nd fastest to join the 200 wickets club, in test matches i.e. Without a fuss.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar may tell you - "Well, 200 is only a number" in his lowly and muffled Parcy accent. In the context of how it all happened, however, - India playing its 500th test against the Kiwis in Kanpur - its importance goes beyond the so-called nominal value.
After all, how many Indian bowlers have reached that figure? I could only remember 5 to 6 - read Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Bishan Singh Bedi, Zaheer Khan and Javagal Sreenath. And may be, just may be, within an year or so - one might as well consider the lanky Ishant Sharma in to that list too:)
The Importance of 200 is relative like all sporting achievements, let alone cricket.
For a batsman achieving 200 in a single innings may be its the zenith, a cause for sheer jubilation.
For a bowler though, 200 is only a mere passing point in what is arguably a long journey. In sub continental terms alone - if you don't quite manage to even achieve that feat, you are quite the sore loser. People would look at you as an under achiever. Imagine being a legend of Cricket in the uncovered pitches, and not even getting enough chances to stomp pass that figure?(Tells you why they regard Sydney Barnes, Fred Trueman etc., as all time greats)
And, those numb-nuts scrolling past the annals of Cricket maybe in a future time would look-up Ashwin's figures in the cold statistics, and would take for granted that he's "the greatest."
Which isn't quite the case mind you. Since the turn of the century - Ashwin's strike rate off 51 coupled with 19 5 Wkt hauls, 6 ten fors' and an Indian record of 6 Man of The Series awards - would tempt a cricket illiterate to rank him even above the great Murali.
Its amazing to see that he has a better strike rate, average and 5/10 wkt hauls than Murali. What's even more amazing to see is that, despite taking his first wicket in a single innings, in as many as 14 overs or so - he still manages to maintain that strike rate!(Not good in Maths? Come in Join the club:)
Performing well in this streak of thirteen test matches, would do a world of good to his confidence.
But can he amass something similar or provide stability by stemming the run flow like Kumble did when India finally gets to travel abroad - Aus, Eng, SAF and New Zealand - is yet to be discovered.
I'm sure Virat and Ashwin knows that fact.
And I'm also sure, in between taking all the showering praises that comes his way - India's talisman spinner is rubbing hands and getting ready - to face the same bunnies(read ABD, Warner, Smith, Trott and Williamson) in their home turf. To be quite frank, Williamson hardly put a foot wrong in this game to Ashwin having vindicated his talents with a respectable 100 ode runs in both innings combined.
He's just got beaten by a bowler who's performing way beyond anyone had imagined him to do so. Which tempts me to even say - in the process of getting the better of his opponents - Ashwin perhaps have got the better of himself too:)
