It is not
often that India looks invincible on a playground.
In most
sports, we are gracious losers.
In football,
we do not exist. In Hockey we exist in the past. In chess, we have our mental
presence. In badminton, we exist in spurts.
On a cricket
field, when wearing whites, India look unbeatable these days.
We have just
now shown our intolerance to the visitors from South Africa by comprehensively
defeating them.
A feat not accomplished
by any team in the last 9 years. A few months back, we defeated Sri Lanka in
Sri Lanka, again an almost unparalleled feat. Even IPKF would not have been
able to do it!
So, what has
changed suddenly?
Is it our
batting? Are we scoring so many runs in an innings that when the time comes for
the opposition, the heat would almost sap them?
No, not at
all!
Is it our
pace bowling? Something we have an on-off love affair with?
No, can’t
even think of it!
Then, what
has made this transition happen?
It is one
man who goes by a rather simple name of Ashwin!
To
understand what goes into the making of Ashwin, we need to understand where he
is from.
Chennai,
a city that worships, well, almost everything. The God is worshipped, their
language is worshipped (Divine Tamil, they say), Music is worshipped (divine
music), parents are worshipped, teachers are worshipped, profession is
worshipped (think ayudha puja, where the tools of the trade are worshipped) and
of course they worship the centres of education.
And, where
are the worshippers? Well, everywhere. In offices, work places, homes and of
course, the schools.
Yes, the
schools.
The bright
youngsters who make successful chartered accountants, engineers, scientists,
bureaucrats and fill the corridors of power in various offices come from these
schools.
And, Ashwin
hails from one of these, possibly among the topmost in terms of pecking order,
Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan, or PSBB School.
A school
where the mediocre do not stand a chance, the reasonably good are made to feel
mediocre, the good feel they struggle to do well and the really good feel at
home.
A school
where excellence is considered a norm.
Ashwin would
have honed his mathematical skills in this institute and started applying them to his game. When you see him bowl, you
don’t see a bowler, you see an engineer trying to outsmart you.
That, in
some ways may have proved to be his undoing when he started bowling for India. In his
mind, he would have used the differentiation method of calculus. Every ball to
every batsman different from the previous ball.
In his utter
unpredictability, he had become completely predictable. Batsmen did not fear
him because they knew he would not attack the chinks in their armour. He was so obsessed trying out new variations
that wicket taking was no longer his only goal.
Possibly the best
thing that happened to him was getting dropped from the Indian team and a
possible change in the Captain.
In his
introspection, he would have realized that it is integration, not
differentiation that is the key to success.
In a
remarkable integration of intent, intellect and intuition, Ashwin transformed
himself. From a bowler who out thought a batsmen in his mind to a bowler who
would outwit the batsmen on the 22 yards.
As a viewer,
it gives immense joy to see Ashwin befuddle opposition with his precision and
guile.
To say Ashwin is the lifeline of the Indian bowling would be no exaggeration. Much like the way opposition make plans to tackle Messi, Ronaldo, De Villiers or our own Tendulkar in the past, most players playing against India think of plans to somehow mitigate his threat.
He is seen as the biggest threat for the opponents. His mere presence has become a psychological advantage.
And, India is winning again.
The fact
that he is no 2 in the ICC bowler’s ranking is no miracle. It is mathemagical.
