AHMEDABAD: It had been a thankless, wicket-less morning session for India. Standing at third-man, Ravichandran Ashwin's right shoulder and arm were being given the once over by a support staff. An ice bag made its way up and down the arm and the shoulder. It was 33°c but the real feel was several degrees higher.
Nothing was going India's way, Ashwin had just finished a spell in the morning (14 in six overs) and he had tried everything. Worryingly, Cameron Green was opening up the run-scoring from one end. In the context of the game, he had already bowled over 30 overs. The last time he had reached that number in India was in Kanpur in 2021.
In the post-lunch session, Ashwin again returned. For a 32nd over. After trying every other trick in the book, Rohit Sharma had gone back to two of his primary bowlers. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Ashwin answered the captain's klaxon by snaffling Green down the leg side. While the wicket itself was down to the batter's mistake — "you don't really plan to get a batter to glove one down the leg side," as Ashwin admitted after the day's play — everything about what led to that dismissal felt like a triumph. "... even while bowling to Green, felt like he was playing beside the line for everything," Ashwin said. "(the) wicket was true for him to play against the spin for everything. So, the idea was to shut him down. That was the plan but not necessarily the way you want to get him out. Those things also need to go your way."
If there was an element of luck in the way he got Green, there was no luck in Alex Carey's dismissal. The first ball was 92 kmph. The second was 94. The third was a touch slower at 81. The fourth ball was floated wide outside off stump at 79 kmph. Carey took the bait but only managed to top-edge it to Axar Patel who was stationed at short third man.
It's what Ashwin has tended to do throughout his career. Play on speeds, use the crease, change the way he loads up, work the geometry inside his head, eliminate the pitch from the equation and try to get into the head of the batters... some may call it experimentation, the man himself called it 'complexities inside my head'.
The batters may have well seen a grenade come out of Ashwin's hands every time he released the ball. On a pitch where all modes of batting were varying levels of easy, the 36-year-old made it seem hard. Six for 91 in 47.2 overs across two days saw him go past another record — the most number of five-wicket hauls in India — en route restricting the visitors to a manageable 480.
On some pitches, he creates obtuse angles to create acute problems for the batters. On this surface, it was more about eliminating the strip totally and dipping into his reservoir of knowledge. Taking the last two wickets was a case in point. He used cross-seam to prise out Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy, both of whom occupied the crease for a period of time.
It's the first time he has taken six wickets in the series but Ashwin looked at it from a more philosophical point of view. "No one spell is better than the other," he said. "Numbers don't give it five or six wickets but it's been coming out of the hand beautifully. This whole series, whatever work I have put in, change of loading, action, cocking my wrists, my spells have been more penetrative than probably in Bangladesh." While India's other bowlers went for a combined 1/191 in 55 overs, Ashwin picked 5/34 in his 22.2 overs on Friday to deliver a somewhat logic-defying spell of spin bowling on a deck that didn't aid spin bowling whatsoever.
That shoulder may be sore — he is looking forward to 'cheering on the batters with a cup of tea' all day on Saturday — but make no mistake. Do not keep taking it for granted for there will come a day when there will be no Ashwin the team can turn to on a pitch like this.