It is a
New Year and a week since the tour to South Africa ended on a disappointing note. 2014 would mark a
touring spree for the Indian cricket team with bulk of the matches scheduled to
be played outside the subcontinent. After a string of series played at home,
India would be playing 7 Test Matches in the bouncy and seaming pitches of New
Zealand and England this year. The maxim goes, “the shorter format is a
batsman’s game and the longer format is won by bowlers” – 20 wickets of the
other team need to be felled to secure a victory in Tests.
For a
team like India who lack a genuine all-rounder (though ICC’s test rankings
might pronounce Ashwin to be the No. 1 All-rounder at the moment) and hence
forced to go with just four regular bowlers for most Test matches, the
spinner’s ability to contribute with wickets becomes crucial in matches played
outside the subcontinent. R Ashwin made his way into the team two years back supplanting
another established offie, Harbhajan Singh and raised expectations with his
ability to deceive the batsmen on a consistent basis and with a large bucket of
variations that was put out on display every time.
But
while Ashwin’s statistics after playing 19 Test matches look impressive with
104 wickets at an average of 24.13, a break-up of the numbers must be sending worrying
signs for the management. 95 of his scalps are from matches played at home at
an average of 24.13, but his away record for wickets and average in 4 matches
read as 9 and 74.78. It is not just the number that must be causing the
headache, Ashwin’s tendency to keep going around the wicket is equally baffling.
The angle, hugely popular with leg-spinners to get some rip out of bowlers’
footmarks in the third and fourth innings of a test match in particular, hardly
poses any danger from an off-spinner and is restrictive at best on the
run-rate. It is often seen as a negative tactic when bowled to right handers
and is employed when the team finds itself in the doldrums or taken as a sign
of a lack of confidence in a bowler. To add to it, he has not been able to
offer much flight and deceive the batsmen in the air, which becomes a spinner’s
key weapon in seamer-friendly pitches.
The
young Indian team which toured South Africa last month did not instil much
confidence in experts and fans prior to the series. The performance in the
One-dayers only corrected the expectations further. Four days into the first
test match at the Wanderers, news sites and experts were celebrating a famous
victory that was yet to be. With eight wickets to be taken on a Day 5 pitch and
a huge score to defend, the presumption of victory was headed only one way. While
Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers deserve all the compliments that came their
way in saving the match and getting the team to within breathing distance of a
victory, the Indian bowling was more than disappointing, not in the least in the
way their spinner bowled. Ashwin bowled 21 overs on the last day and 36 overs
in all in the last innings and was not able to account for a single victim.
Importantly enough, he did not seem to trouble any of the South African batsmen
and that really hurt India’s ability to go aggressive and press for a win.
It is
to the credit of the team management that the writing on the wall was quickly
spotted and Ashwin was replaced by a more opportunistic player in Ravindra
Jadeja for the second match in Durban. Jadeja’s inclusion ahead of Ohja
provoked many raised eyebrows but he rationalised the decision with a six
wicket haul forcing the South African batsmen into false shots in the first
innings.
The team’s performance in South Africa has given enough indications that they would like to be competitors and not be known as mere tourists. Ashwin has retained his place in the squad for the New Zealand series as the
lead or the second spinner (we do not know that yet), but if he were to expect
to find himself more regularly in the playing eleven, he would need to look at
developing himself into an improved bowler, capable of taking wickets on unresponsive
pitches.
