FROM DHONI's BOY TO ICC CRICKETER OF THE YEAR: AN IT ENGINEER's UNBELIEVABLE 'OFF BREAK' JOURNEY!
"The journey thus far hasn't been a bed of roses, but if those thorns hadn't come In my way I wouldn't be half the person that I m today."
T20's were a revolutuion, a 6ft 2in Off break opening the Bowling attack was something beyond that!
54th match of the 2009 IPL season,CSK is playing KXIP in a do or die match at Kingsmead,Durban. Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first, despite having just 116 in the scorecard, the former runnerups were in the verge of going out. Eventhough KXIP lost Sunny Sohal early, Simon Katich & Luke Pomerbach started slowly, at one stage they were 32 for 1, suddenly Dhoni introduced the wizard from one end, Muttiah Muralidaran. He got both the Australians out. Suddenly a new face were introduced against India's own Yuvraj Singh, a 6 feet 2in tall, a Tamilian playing his second game,doing his off breaks for the first time in IPL. MS Dhoni, at the toss, justified the addition of an extra offspinner by pointing to the number of left-handers in the line-up. But that guy wearing the jersey no.14 were not familiar to the international cricket. The tall guy started well,The frustration of not being able to put away the only spinner in the trio without international experience forced Sangakkara into chipping one back to him, eventhough he was playing for Tamil Nadu, the BTECH Graduate from SSN College of Engineering entered to his magical world of International Cricket. KUMAR SANGAKKARA "CAUGHT AND BOWLED BY ASHWIN". People react to repeated failures in different ways. Chennai off-spinner R Ashwin seems to have made the most of them. Seven years ago, Ashwin had played for the India under-17 side as an opening batsman, and a string of failures saw him being dropped from the side.
Ravichandran Ashwin's Journey start's from there, at the Kingsmead Durban...
Eventhough he finished his figures, 12-2 in his 4 overs, didn't get the chance in the Semi final against RCB. Unfortunately CSK lost the match and the knocked out from the tournament.
In the season followed, Dhoni and his boys didn't had a good run initially, once they were 7th, suddenly an inclusion from the Australia boosted the team- Dougy Bollinger. The Team's energy level went high & the skipper was at his best. In the matches followed, he started using Ashwin more, even He opened the bowling attack, that was something new to this format,even for the game. From then their partnership started. In fact Ashwin and Dhoni started ruling the IPL. Dhoni's heroics in the do or die match helped them to enter the Semis, from there along with a complete team effort , Men in Yellow crowned as the Champions for the first time. Ashwin finished the tournament with the figures,
He bowls the 'carrom-ball' like Ajantha Mendis as well now — Ashwin had loads of confidence in his abilities. While he aspired to play for India like most others his age, he believed he can be a left-field option to open the bowling in the games shorter formats. Finally he achieved his dream.
T20's were a revolutuion, a 6ft 2in Off break opening the Bowling attack was something beyond that!
54th match of the 2009 IPL season,CSK is playing KXIP in a do or die match at Kingsmead,Durban. Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first, despite having just 116 in the scorecard, the former runnerups were in the verge of going out. Eventhough KXIP lost Sunny Sohal early, Simon Katich & Luke Pomerbach started slowly, at one stage they were 32 for 1, suddenly Dhoni introduced the wizard from one end, Muttiah Muralidaran. He got both the Australians out. Suddenly a new face were introduced against India's own Yuvraj Singh, a 6 feet 2in tall, a Tamilian playing his second game,doing his off breaks for the first time in IPL. MS Dhoni, at the toss, justified the addition of an extra offspinner by pointing to the number of left-handers in the line-up. But that guy wearing the jersey no.14 were not familiar to the international cricket. The tall guy started well,The frustration of not being able to put away the only spinner in the trio without international experience forced Sangakkara into chipping one back to him, eventhough he was playing for Tamil Nadu, the BTECH Graduate from SSN College of Engineering entered to his magical world of International Cricket. KUMAR SANGAKKARA "CAUGHT AND BOWLED BY ASHWIN". People react to repeated failures in different ways. Chennai off-spinner R Ashwin seems to have made the most of them. Seven years ago, Ashwin had played for the India under-17 side as an opening batsman, and a string of failures saw him being dropped from the side.
Ravichandran Ashwin's Journey start's from there, at the Kingsmead Durban...
Eventhough he finished his figures, 12-2 in his 4 overs, didn't get the chance in the Semi final against RCB. Unfortunately CSK lost the match and the knocked out from the tournament.
In the season followed, Dhoni and his boys didn't had a good run initially, once they were 7th, suddenly an inclusion from the Australia boosted the team- Dougy Bollinger. The Team's energy level went high & the skipper was at his best. In the matches followed, he started using Ashwin more, even He opened the bowling attack, that was something new to this format,even for the game. From then their partnership started. In fact Ashwin and Dhoni started ruling the IPL. Dhoni's heroics in the do or die match helped them to enter the Semis, from there along with a complete team effort , Men in Yellow crowned as the Champions for the first time. Ashwin finished the tournament with the figures,
12 MATCHES288 BALLS293 RUNS13 WICKETSAvg;- 22.53Econ;- 6.10S/R;- 22.15 |
He was selected for the Tri Series in Zimbabwe, made his debut vs Srilanka. He scored a 32 ball 38 and took 2 wickets for 50 runs. Unfortunately India lost the Tri Series, but registered win in the T20's followed.
Since Harbhajan was the leading spinner in the team, Jadeja & Pragyan Ojha were already made a mark, Ashwin had to wait for the seniors to take rest. He got chances occasionally.In between he lead CSK to an anothe triumph, winning the Champions League. He was the Man of the series. In the end of that year, New Zeland visited India for 5 Onedayers, the selectors rested the seniors, Gambhir was appointed as the captain. India completed a 5–0 whitewash and Ashwin ended up as the leading wicket-taker of the series with 11 wickets at an average of 21.90. By the time Ashwin earned the praise of many, Gambhir claimed him as the "Find" from the series, appreciated his bowling especially in the powerplays. Eventhough he had to wait for his time as Bhajji came back, Selectors and his CSK Captain believed in this young boy and for the Worldcup in the spin friendly tracks of India,they chosen him as the third spinner along with Harbhajan & Piyush Chawla. In the World Cup he had got only 2 games, but still he would be rememberd for his well disciplined bowling against Australia at the Motera. Dhoni opened his Bowling attack with Ashwin, which made a huge impact in that Quarter Final. Ash cracking the stumps of Watto is still in the minds of hardcore Indian fans. Dhoni had differnent Ideas for the Semis and Finals, as Yuvraj superbly assisted the captain by doing the job of second spinner, Ash had to wait in the dressing room to see India crowning the World Cup. The 25 year old Ash had got the luck to be a part of the World Cup winning Squad.
From then India were in a transition period, losing the test series in England and Australia (4-0).The seniors failed continuosly except Dravid. After that Dhoni believed in his youngsters, especially in guys like Ashwin, Vijay and all ahead of the Seniors in the squad like Sehwag, Harbhajan etc.. Ashwin had a dream debut against Windies, peroforming with both bat and ball.By that Time Ash had become the frontline spinner of the team.CSK retained him for the next seasons. Dhoni had to face many allegations for his inclusion as the frontline spinner and Vijay as the opener ahead of many seniors especially after the England's tour off India. Those fans of seniors, Cricketers like Bishan Singh Bedi and all continuosly hunted Mahi with the names of Jaddu and Ash,his CSK Mates. Dhoni being trolled by those blind fans claiming the 'CSK QUOTA'. MS didn't uttered a word against them, but at the same time believed in his Youngsters, especially Ash and Jaddu.They responded to their captain by Whitewashing the Aussies, winning the Champions trophy, and helped India to reach the finals of 2014 T2o World Cup. Then came the 'KOHLI-ERA' in tests. After Losing in England and Australia, India didn't lost a series in Tests since January 2014.
In between Ashwin went to past many records, Most No of Man of the series by an Indian, Fastest Indian to reach 50,100,150,200 wickets, No.1 Bowler, No.1 Allrounder. As CSK was suspended from IPL, he was chosen by an Another Dhoni-led Team. Rising Pune Super Giants paid a whomping amount of 7.5 crores for him. This marks his "Brand Value" Now. Apart from a Disappointing IPL he had a memorable Run in 2016, which earned him the "ICC CRICKETER OF THE YEAR " award. During the voting period, which ran from 14 September 2015 to 20 September 2016, the 30-year-old from Chennai played eight Tests in which he took 48 wickets and scored 336 runs. Ashwin also claimed 27 wickets in 19 T20Is.
In between Ashwin went to past many records, Most No of Man of the series by an Indian, Fastest Indian to reach 50,100,150,200 wickets, No.1 Bowler, No.1 Allrounder. As CSK was suspended from IPL, he was chosen by an Another Dhoni-led Team. Rising Pune Super Giants paid a whomping amount of 7.5 crores for him. This marks his "Brand Value" Now. Apart from a Disappointing IPL he had a memorable Run in 2016, which earned him the "ICC CRICKETER OF THE YEAR " award. During the voting period, which ran from 14 September 2015 to 20 September 2016, the 30-year-old from Chennai played eight Tests in which he took 48 wickets and scored 336 runs. Ashwin also claimed 27 wickets in 19 T20Is.
Ashwin had finished 2015 as the number-one ranked Test bowler in the world, a position he twice reclaimed in 2016.Ravichandran Ashwin has become the third India player and 12th player overall to win the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2016.
A boy who started as an opener in the junior level, then turned up to take the the Spin as per his Mom's advice, has now reached to a height where those haters who claimed him just as a 'Dhoni-Boy' or 'CSK Quota' can't even imagine! That's Called Success, Success of a Champion Cricketer. 2016 - The Year Of Ash! Way to go, Champion!
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-Rohith Ramesh RJ
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