R Ashwin Ravichandran offspinner latest Innings India Vs Australia Photos Pics Latest News Videos

R Ashwin Ravichandran offspinner.Ashwin Ravichandran latest Innings.Ashwin Ravichandran India Vs Australia.Ashwin Ravichandran Photos.Ashwin Ravichandran Pics.Ashwin Ravichandran Latest News.Ashwin Ravichandran Videos.

R Ashwin is a tall offspinner who took the soduku ball, a finger-flicked tennis-ball legbreak, from the streets of Chennai and used it effectively in international cricket on a bigger, harder cricket ball. His inspiration was Ajantha Mendis' carrom ball. Even before Mendis had played for Sri Lanka and bamboozled India's heavyweight Test line-up in one series, this 21-year-old saw him in a game in Chennai and went home convinced it could be done with a cricket ball too. In his first season of first-class cricket back then, Ashwin put his long fingers to tireless work on that variation. Soon after Mendis had became a brief phenomenon, Ashwin unleashed it in Twenty20 cricket.

R Ashwin Latest Pics

That carrom ball, an arm ball just as good, his control over his offbreaks, and a sharp brain made Ashwin a quintessential limited-overs spinner. For his IPL franchise, he opened the bowling, bowled at death, came on when wickets were required, and was the Man of the Series in the 2010 Champions League played in South Africa. In fact, Ashwin is one of the rare players who actually came up through the IPL and was good enough to hold his own in bigger forms of cricket.

He had been playing the Ranji Trophy well before the IPL and the Champions League, but didn't lead the charts. His success in T20 cricket earned him a call-up to the national side. He made his international debut in Zimbabwe in 2010, went on to play a big role in the home whitewash of New Zealand, and it wasn't surprising to see him in the Indian squad for the 2011 World Cup. While India went for the experience of Harbhajan Singh in most of the games in the tournament, Ashwin replaced his childhood hero in ODIs soon after. A good show there won him a call-up for a home Test against West Indies, and he justified his selection immediately, taking nine wickets in his maiden appearance, the second-highest by an Indian debutant after Narendra Hirwani's 16, and winning the Man-of-the-Match award. By the time he finished the three-Test series, he had 22 wickets, a Test century, and the tag of leading spinner for India. He struggled in Australia, but enhanced his reputation in home conditions by taking 18 wickets in two Tests against New Zealand in 2012.

R Ashwin Latest Innings

Ashwin’s Sixer...., 30-4-88-6

Australia's captain Michael Clarke was the beneficiary of a major reprieve in the minutes before tea as he and the debutant Moises Henriques attempted to regather the tourists' innings after R Ashwin struck telling blows on the first afternoon of the first Test in Chennai.

Clarke was given not out when Ashwin appealed vehemently for a bat-pad catch, but replays showed a clear inside edge. Seldom have India cursed the lack of DRS given their opposition to its vagaries, but they were left to gnash their teeth this time.

Ashwin Ravichandran

Batting first after Clarke showed rare glee at winning the toss on a parched surface devoid of grass, the visitors made a rapid start before stuttering twice, first when Ed Cowan's intemperate charge down the wicket was followed by the swift exit of a vulnerable Phillip Hughes, and again when Shane Watson, David Warner and Matthew Wade fell swiftly after lunch.

Clarke played with typical skill against India's array of slow bowlers, and Henriques did not look out of place at Test match level having been brought into the side as a middle-order batsman and change bowler. They will hope to go on from their starts in the evening.

Ashwin was clearly India's most accomplished performer, gaining spin, dip and bounce for his five wickets, but the rest tended to pitch too short and gave the Australians room to manoeuvre the ball around the Chidambaram Stadium. Ishant Sharma and the debutant Bhuvneshwar Kumar already appear peripheral members of the attack.

R Ashwin Chennai Innings

The left-arm spinner, Pragyan Ojha, was among the four players left out of the final XI. Ojha's omission was something of a surprise given his strong returns against England in the recent Test series, while he was also an accomplished performer against Australia on their last Test visit to India in 2010.

Cowan and Warner made a cheery start, swatting the ball around with ease against Bhuvneshwar and Ishant. Warner was the scratchier of the two, having batted properly in the nets for only a few days before the match due to his rehab from a fractured thumb. Twice Ashwin beat Warner outside off stump, first drawing an edge that an incredulous Virender Sehwag contrived to spill at slip, then creating a difficult stumping chance that MS Dhoni failed to complete due to the bounce extracted.

Meanwhile Cowan looked serene, so much so that he advanced to loft Harbhajan down the ground for only the second six of his 14-Test career. If that stroke showed how good Cowan was feeling, his next aggressive measure was to smack of misplaced comfort.

Trying to belt another six, he was beaten by Ashwin's greater drop and bounce, and failed to get back to his crease before Dhoni tipped the bails off. On the first morning of the series, it was hard to imagine a more wasteful exit.

Unlike Cowan, Hughes had failed to make a decent score in the warm-up, and his indecisiveness was evident in a stay that featured plenty of shuffling and ended with a horrid, half-hearted cut at Ashwin that dragged the ball onto leg stump. As so often happens in India.

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