‘Bowling and batting are very separate sports in the same game’ – Ashwin

Allrounders often tend to draw from doing well in one discipline to do well in the other but there is perhaps a chance that R Ashwin‘s primary skill might have held back his secondary one.

“Bowling and batting are very separate sports in the same game,” Ashwin said after the second day of the Chennai Test between India and Bangladesh. “One is done consciously. The other one is done subconsciously. So, for me, to compartmentalise both has taken its own due.”

He scored 113 off 133 balls that helped the hosts post 376 in the first innings. The bowlers then ran through Bangladesh, knocking them over for 149 and taking almost complete control of the proceedings.

Ashwin walked in at 144 for 6 and immediately put what he has learned over a long career into practice: that with the bat in hand, he needs to be an entirely different person from the one who has gone on to become one of the greatest spinners in history.

“At this stage, I am able to sequence that and split both of them and see as a cricketer. So, when I walked there [to bat] the only thing I wanted to do was to settle down my game. The mind can play tricks because I am a bowler who plays on 12, 18, 24 balls ahead when I am sequencing it. As a batter, I shouldn’t do that. I just use my experience when I get in. So, now it’s more about just focusing on the ball and hitting it as I see it.”

This was Ashwin’s second successive century at his home ground, Chepauk, following on from a 106 against England in similar circumstances in 2021. He wasn’t quite able to pick which one he liked better.

“Both. [The England Test] had so much riding on it. We lost the first one and came to the second. Last time when I played at Chennai, I felt like I was making sort of a comeback in more than one way. I was a little here and there. I went to Australia and came back here. That was different and I enjoyed it. I think my batting has come along a lot better since that particular game. I worked quite a lot on how I can maximise my shots, maximise my game. I worked on how I can play fast bowling and all that sort of stuff. I’m glad it’s coming out nicely.”

Ashwin does this – pushing himself even at 38 with 500 wickets already in the bag – for a very simple reason.

“Happiness. You want to be good. You excel. You feel happy at the end of the day. It drives me towards that. Every time I do well, it leaves me in a good, happy state of mind. That’s what you get on this journey for. You want to do well. You want to excel on the global stage. People are watching you and you feel happy about it.”

There was a time, though, when Ashwin couldn’t find a way to play his cricket with this kind of freedom. “I was critical of myself earlier but not much now because I have already put so much pressure on myself. Not only did I put myself under pressure, but there was pressure from outside too. I used to find happiness in answering my critics with my performance, or in the press conference. But that’s not the case now. The most important thing for me these days is to enjoy my game, by staying in the moment, by playing my cricket with a smile on my face. Four-five years ago, I made a promise to myself, with great difficulty, that I would not respond to anyone from then on and would play for my own happiness. And I have maintained that to date.”

As is often the case with his bowling, Ashwin had Jadeja as his partner for the course of a match-turning 199-run seventh-wicket stand.

“You don’t plan for such things. Jaddu is one cricketer who has evolved so nicely. I always envy him. I have made that amply clear. So gifted, so talented. He has found ways to maximise his potential. Keeps it really simple. He can repeat it day in and day out. I wish I could be him but I am glad I am myself. He is an exceptionally good cricketer. I am happy for him. Likewise, in so many ways, watching him bat over the last couple of years has given me insight into how [much] better I can be. Both of us have grown together. Both of us have done some special things. We really value one another at this stage. Both of us are enjoying each other’s success more than ever before.”