Terrific trio

Lauding the efforts of off-spinner R. Ashwin, India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun on Saturday said the Tamil Nadu cricketer is growing in stature with each series. He also highlighted the superlative efforts of the other two spinners in the team Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra for complementing Ashwin exceptionally well in helping India seal the deal in Nagpur.

Ashwin picked up figures of 12/98 against South Africa in the second Test here to gift his side a 124-run victory.

“There is no great change in his bowling. The only thing is that now he is more aware of his strengths and has understood the angles at which he needs to bowl to be most effective. He was always a good bowler but now he is growing in stature with each series because his awareness levels have improved tremendously,” Arun was quoted as saying by bcci.tv.

Arun said what has made Ashwin a better bowler now is that he uses his variations sparingly.

“He is one of the best off-spinners around. The challenge was for him to say, ‘I will trouble the best in the world with my off-spin’. The fact is that he is a lot more consistent in bowling his off-spin right now. That means his variations are a big surprise. Of course, he has got a lot of them up his sleeve, but he uses them very sparingly,” he said.

“This is the X factor in his bowling right now.”

On comeback man, Jadeja, Arun said the time spent out of the team gave the Saurashtra cricketer time to think about his bowling and contemplate what he needs to do to be consistent at this level.

“With those performances in the Ranji Trophy, he has come back stronger and more confident,” he added.

Explaining the Jaddu-special — the one that goes on straight through, Arun said: “Jadeja is someone who depends on his accuracy. He is spot on and attacks the stumps. He also has an uncanny knack of bowling straight on a wicket that offers turn. This makes him extremely potent and all the more difficult to counter.

“Yes, most of the wickets he has got in this series are off straighter ones. He would get one to turn and the one that goes straight, comes in to the right-hander. So the batsman doesn’t know which one is going to come into him and which one is going to leave him.”

Arun heaped praise on leg-spinner Amit Mishra for his accuracy.

“Mishra is a readymade bowler. When he walked into the Test side in Sri Lanka, he had 500-odd first-class wickets under his belt. So, he obviously knows exactly how to bowl on such wickets. Also, for a leg-spinner, he is very accurate, that makes him special.

“Handling a leg-spinner properly is extremely important, and that’s where Virat has played a major role,” he added.