India's Ravichandran Ashwin believes finger-spinners battling people's perception in limited-overs cricket

Sport360 staff 21:06 15/03/2018
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  • Ashwin believes finger-spinners have a future in white-ball cricket.

    India‘s Ravichandran Ashwin believes finger-spinners like him can flourish in limited-overs cricket once again and that they are currently battling the perception of ineffectiveness.

    The off-spinner, along with Ravindra Jadeja, had found himself surplus to requirements in India’s white-ball setup with wrist-spin pair of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav establishing themselves as the front-line attack.

    Around the globe too, international cricket has embraced wrist-spinners by storm with three of them leading the ICC T20I bowlers’ rankings currently in the form of Rashid Khan, Ish Sodhi and Samuel Badree.

    In an interview with Reuters, Ashwin has based this phenomenon on the perception of people.

    “The future of finger-spinners lies in the perception of people. More so because it’s based on perception about what people think of what’s relevant and what’s not. Things will turn around,” the 31-year-old said.

    “At one point of time, leg-spinners didn’t have a place (in white-ball cricket), now they do. Finger-spinners, maybe you all think don’t have a role, will come back too.”

    One of the leading spinners in Test cricket, Ashwin feels that finger-spinners of his ilk could shine in white-ball cricket if given the same leeway as their wrist-spinning counterparts enjoy.

    “People have been allowing 64 runs for two wickets in 10 overs of leg-spin too. If you give the same courage to the finger-spinners, they’ll do the same thing,” Ashwin explained.

    Kuldeep has been a revelation for India in limited-overs cricket.

    Kuldeep has been a revelation for India in limited-overs cricket.

    “It’s all about perception. I think handling bowlers is all about how you handle them and you how perceive them.”

    The senior India spinner has picked up 150 and 52 wickets in 111 and 46 ODIs and T20Is respectively and Ashwin wants to keep improving as a cricketer in the limited-overs formats.

    “It’s all about wanting to get better. I’ve mentioned all the time that it’s about wanting to bowl those four overs (in T20s) or 10 overs (in ODIs), whatever that be, and be almost unplayable. That’s been top of my mind all the time,” he stated.

    The India man has been picked as the skipper of his new IPL franchise, the Kings XI Punjab ahead of the 11th edition which gets underway next month. He will be hoping to show he can still turn it on in white-ball cricket when it comes around.

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