A Leader Of His Own Craft

Hello Friends,

I hope the IPL fever has already set in among most of you. I am sure entire nation will continue to be  in that mode  for the next two months. Though IPL has just commenced, there had been lot of exciting sporting actions throughout the month. Let's have a quick look on the rest of the sporting actions for the month of March.

• Indian men's team scripting a dominant series victory over England  drew lot of attention throughout the month.
• Australian men's team continued their dominance in the red ball format by defeating neighbors New Zealand. 
• New look Sri Lankan men's  team came up with some impressive performances in an all format series against Bangladesh.
• In Indian domestic circuit Mumbai won their 42nd Ranji trophy title.
• In the world of franchise cricket Islamabad United emerged champions in yet another exciting season of PSL.
• Finally RCB could break their jinx of an IPL trophy after a wait of more than a decade when the women's team won the 2nd edition of Women's Premier League(WPL).

But the featured story in this edition of Sports Talk Of The Month is about a warrior who has been serving his country with grace for a long period of time now.

The Spin Bowling Scientist

Ravichandran Ashwin has been a consistent performer for Indian team for more than a decade now specially in the red ball format. Over the years through his match winning performances he has been able to create his own legacy. Though he has been mostly talked about for his bowling the most underrated aspect of his game probably is his batting. Over 3000 runs with 5 test hundreds in addition to 516 wickets makes him a true allrounder of this generation. What is most remarkable about him is not the amount of wickets he has taken or runs scored, rather his attitude and fighting spirit whenever he is on field be it for national team, his state team or franchise team. Today we are going to talk about this modern day legend  who has been a leader of his craft without a title.

Ashwin receiving the Arjuna Award form the minister of sports Mr. Sarbananda Sonowal

Image Credit: Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (GODL-India), GODL-India <https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf>, via Wikimedia Commons

Years back when Ashwin first came into  picture during his initial IPL stint with CSK under the leadership of Dhoni nobody would have thought that he would turn out to be a  red ball specialist in the  years to come. It was Dhoni under whom he blossomed into a match winner across formats and slowly went on to create his own legacy. Except Nathan Lyon none of the spinners in the last decade has really been a competition for him when it comes to test cricket. His twin achievements of playing 100 test matches and taking 500 wickets in the recently concluded test series against England talks a lot about his dedication.

During one of the test matches of the recent home series against England  he exhibited one of the rarest  instances of being a true team man. Ashwin had to leave that test match midway due to a family emergency. Nobody expected him to take any further part in the test match. But it was again the  fighting spirit of the Chennai lad came to the fore that saw him coming back and rejoining the team during the same test match. This is an instance which might not garner huge social media attention but definitely shows the tough side of a sportsman and his family. Great to see coach Rahul Dravid considering this instance as one of the defining moments of the series. Probably this instance takes us back to the time when another spin bowling legend Anil Kumble played a test match with a broken jaw.

At times Ashwin has been termed as more of a spin bowling scientist by his colleagues. That's because of the kind of thinking he puts into every ball that he bowls. Lot of times we have seen him literally playing with a batter's mind. He is not someone who is dependent on pitch or conditions. His performance outside India may not be that great but still he is a match winner in any condition. Many a times he has been excluded from the playing eleven in overseas conditions in favour of Jadeja who is considered as a better batter than Ashwin in those conditions. Even though it's a team management call but still the debate continues whether a player of Ashwin's calibre should be dropped despite having five test hundreds at no.7 or 8. Sometimes character is more important than skills. Probably Ashwin is one such player.

In Indian cricket age is a big factor in terms of selection of a player. Considering Ashwin is already 37, he knows how important it is for him to continue performing at his best to prolong his career. If we look at it from another perspective there is hardly any spinner who can be a suitable replacement for him specially in test cricket. Jimmy Anderson is already showing the world that age is just a number until  you keep performing. Nobody would be surprised to see Ashwin keep performing for a longer period of time in the coming days making age an inconsequential number.

Stay tuned here for some exciting stories from IPL shortly.