In the last IPL, I was bowling reverse carrom: Ashwin

NEW DELHI: In the latest episode of ESPNcricinfo Videocast that airs on Saturday, R. Ashwin talks about his future, his accuracy as a bowler, what makes him click in short format cricket, future of spinners and how they can stay relevant in the ever evolving game of cricket.

"I am good at T20 cricket. If my body holds up, I see a purple patch coming up for me in Test cricket", says Ravichandran Ashwin when Sanjay Manjarekar, host of ESPNcricinfo, asks him about his future plans.

Ashwin does not favour 4-day cricket. He says, "I am a spinner and you're taking the fifth day out of the game, you're taking out a very fascinating aspect of the game."

Ashwin shares the secret of his ability to produce variations in finger spin with so much accuracy and the influence Woorkeri Raman's — former Indian cricketer and current coach of the India women's team — coaching technique had on him.

"W.V. Raman who is known to be a straight forward and extremely disciplined man trained us to throw the ball accurately that should land above the stumps. He also maintained that I stand no chance as a spinner if I cannot hit the top of the bat of a batsman every time I bowled."

R Ashwin further adds, "In fact, W.V. Raman helped me master my rhythm. He was the first person who with or without his knowledge, inculcated this self-conscious training inside me. He would keep telling me, you're running 10% slower or you're running 15% faster. And this put me in a great place when I started playing first-class cricket. And these are the things that I will never forget in my career. But because he was straight forward, a bit dismissive and he could put pressure on people, they started moving away from him." IANS