The pitch-leg, hit-off dismissals of Alastair Cook at
Edgbaston, for example, or the ripping, Murali-esque offbreak with which he
bowled Kane Williamson in Kanpur, or these two beauties to Ollie Pope in
Ahmedabad, are just a few examples of the memorable Test-match wickets that R
Ashwin has taken. He has had a successful side career as a T20 trailblazer.
The magical moments of Ashwin the ODI bowler are maybe
harder to remember off the top of your head. It has everything to do with the
nature of the format and the limited opportunity it has recently had for
fingerspin, as well as a lot to do with Ashwin’s sparse participation in ODIs
over the past six years—he has only played four of them.
In contrast, Ashwin recently delivered what might have
been the best ODI ball of his career, a reverse carrom ball that swung into
Marnus Labuschagne and straightened off the pitch to beat his closed bat face
and hit off and middle. A delivery that has been around for as long as the
stitched seam on a cricket ball has existed, an inswinger keeping its line,
delivered in a way that no one has ever even considered doing before. If you
haven’t played much ODI cricket for six years and suddenly get the chance to
push your claim for a World Cup, it’s not a bad ball to bowl.
Ashwin was bowling at the Chepauk nets on Friday
night, two days before India’s opening match against Australia in the
competition. Floodlights and India’s orange practise uniform contributed to the
scene’s already surreal appearance; nevertheless, a delivery to Suryakumar
Yadav intensified this impression as he attempted to push the ball into the leg
side and the ball left him and squared him up.
It was impossible to determine what ball Ashwin had
delivered from the outside. It might have been a drifting offbreak that didn’t
turn, a reverse carrom ball that gained some traction, an arm ball, or a carrom
ball.
Six years ago, Ashwin was seemingly permanently
dropped from the Indian ODI team because he and Ravindra Jadeja weren’t getting
wickets for the team in the middle overs. If he is back now, it is less because
he has evolved as a bowler and more because India’s demands have altered and
other puzzle pieces have been relocated to make way for his skill set.
But India required the same talents in preparation for
a World Cup played at home, where their combination, depending on the venue,
would have room for a third spinner.
Chennai is most likely one of the locations. Although
it doesn’t have a huge outfield, it is larger than those at most Indian
stadiums, and the pitch typically offers a reasonable amount of grip. In
comparison to most other grounds, it is more difficult here to knock spinners
out of the attack.
The same teams will likely play on a same pitch on
Sunday. The field used for the game is a black-soil pitch, and Chennai’s square
also features a red-soil field. Black-soil pitches in India typically play
slower and lower than red-soil pitches, yet soil type is not an infallible
predictor of a pitch’s temperament.
The decision between Ashwin and Shardul Thakur—third
spinner who bats versus third seamer who bats—is likely to be the most condition-specific.
It could at times be very difficult to make that
decision. At Chepauk, it might be a little simpler. This is Ashwin’s home
field, where he once said that “the air is talking to me, each man sitting
in the stands is talking to me” after rampaging through Australia in a
Test match.
Ashwin’s road to the ODIs has been long, winding, and
full of surprises. It makes natural that it has led him back to this location,
where it all started.