If you take spinners as T20 commodity, that’s where you will finish them: Ashwin

The competition bar to sustain a place in the Indian team is rising with every passing series. We witnessed some new match-winners on the recently concluded tour of Australia when players like Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Shardul Thakur stepped up to take the responsibility and won the series for India.

Some similar competition has been there as far as the spin department is concerned. Sundar made his Test debut on this series while someone like Kuldeep Yadav didn’t even get a match to don the Indian jersey.

In a chat with The New Indian Express, R Ashwin talked about the spinners and how making them a T20 “commodity” will not help them.

“When I came through the first-class ranks, my first captain was S Badrinath and coach was (WV) Raman. The learning I had under them is not the same for spinners coming right now. I was having a chat with Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar and that’s one of the reasons. Another thing is the amount of grass and the number of wickets the seamers take... games that finish in the first two days with seamers taking a lot of wickets to throw spinners off guard.”

“Spinners are someone who emerge because they do a lot of repetition and get a lot of games in FC cricket. If you are taking that away from the spinners and look at them as a T20 commodity, that’s where you will finish them. I feel there are talents but the way they are dealt with in first-class cricket is not the same as the privilege I had of being mentored by my captain and coach,” he said.

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Every time there was a challenge, somebody in the team raised their bar: Ashwin

The Indian team was plagued with injuries during the tour of Australia. The prominent names like Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, KL Rahul, Hanuma Vihari, Ravindra Jadeja had been ruled out during the series after sustaining individual injuries while R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah had missed the final Test after not being fully fit. But India rode on the fine performances from the youngsters to snap a win in the final match and the series. Talking to The New Indian Express, India all-rounder R Ashwin did mention about the teamwork that was put in despite the injury concerns. “I am not too sure. They got bowled out for 190 in Adelaide. With another hundred runs on the board, even that pink ball Test could have gone either way. I personally think they knew our bowling was going to challenge them all through the series. I think it is just that the team found ways to bounce back from 36 all out. It's not quite the bench strength alone that dictated the way the series went. I think every time there was a challenge, somebody in the team raised their bar. One piece of good fortune, there were new people and fresh legs especially in the bowling department walking in. Sometimes when you're playing a long series, fresh legs and minds can do the trick,” he said. India were bowled out for 36 in the second innings of the first Test and eventually lost the match by 8 wickets but bounced back with authority to win the second and fourth clash while the third match ended in a draw.

Decided to compete against Steve Smith: R Ashwin

All-rounder R Ashwin played a massive role in India’s successful run in Australia as the visitors won the four-match Test series 2-1 to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. In a chat with The New Indian Express, Ashwin talked about his batting and how he had faced competition for one slot in the side. “There have been questions raised over my batting since the West Indies tour. But one more thing that needs to go into consideration is I was playing all formats of the game and sometimes roles of people just playing Test cricket alone changes. I feel when I've just been playing Test cricket, it's pretty much one game here or there and I'm constantly fighting with someone else for the lone spinner slot. And if I have to be judged purely on my batting skills and batting averages then I think an innings or two alone to drop me out of a particular series, I felt wasn't quite justified,” he said. Ashwin picked up a total of 12 wickets in the series Down Under. Discussing the same, the off-spinner said, “Looking back you can say that but I personally think that this is just another dimension of cricket that I'm seeing myself in. I've always maintained that you cannot really say this is the best or anything, you never know something else could lie in front of you. It didn't look like I was going to start the series, in all honesty. Because Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) damaged his hamstring and that is why I got my opportunity in the first Test. For me, things fell in place and I also have been feeling over the last two years I have been bowling well, how it's come out of the hand.” The Indian spinner had troubled former Aussie skipper Steve Smith, especially in the first couple of Test matches, where Smith kept getting trapped in his crease. Ashwin admitted that he was up for the challenge and wanted to 'compete' with Smith. “There were records that Smith had never got out to spinners in Australia. I wanted to turn that around. I am entitled to think I am probably the best in the world. I wanted to think on those lines. I thought 'who is the best in the series?' I can't compete with Virat Kohli so I decided to compete against Smith. A lot of people were talking about who will dismiss Smith. But, nobody even gave me a chance. Then, I made sure that people spoke about me at the end of the series,” he said.

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Rajasthan Royals appoint Sangakkara as Director of Cricket

Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals have appointed Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara as the Director of Cricket of their team. Apart from overseeing the team’s overgrowth, he has been given the task of cricketing infrastructure growth and scouting the future talents for the team. "To oversee the cricket strategy of a franchise in the leading cricket competition in the world, as well as building the development programs and cricketing infrastructure that will provide the future foundation of the IPL team's on-field success, is an opportunity that really motivated me," Sangakarra, currently the President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was quoted as saying in the media release of the Royals. Sanju Samson, the newly appointed skipper of the Royals was excited to have the Sri Lankan who played 594 international matches and scored more than 28,000 runs, as the Director of Cricket. "It's great to have an all-time wicketkeeping great with us, he is someone who's donned many hats, he was a fantastic keeper-batsman. He's someone who's shown great character both on and off the field and the values that one associate with him is the same which we embody here at Rajasthan Royals," said the Kerala captain.