Ravichandran Ashwin

The Indian T20 League has become a staple source of the two things that Indians keep very close to their heart - Cricket and Bollywood. It is this unique combination that has been working out for the League to flourish in India and all over the world for the past decade or so. This has also helped up and coming youngsters to perform for their team, thus paving them a way to their International career which will be representing India on the global stage. One of the players who has successfully milked this opportunity clean is Ravichandran Ashwin or "Ash" as he is called affectionately by this teammates.

His journey did not start off with the Indian T20 League though. Ash enjoyed a wonderful debut in the 2006-07 season for his state, Tamil Nadu. He carried this form into the second season of Indian T20 League with Chennai, then with TN team again with the ball and also the bat. His debut for the Indian team came when the selectors picked him up for the tri-series tour in Zimbabwe during 2010. He kept shuffling between being selected and being dropped between 2010-11 season but he was surprisingly called up and included in the 15 man squad for the 50-over World Cup in 2011. He did not play the chunk of the tournament as he was in the starting eleven only for 2 games which included the quarter-final clash against Australia. Ashwin really came out of his shell during the visit of West Indies where he got his first Test cap and also scalped up 9 wickets during the game, the second-best figures for an Indian bowler then on debut. Soon, he became an important puzzle in the mix for India in Test matches with the ball and also the willow.

Ashwin was given an extended Test run when in 2013, he was called up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy where he picked up 29 wickets in the series. He also became the third Indian bowler to pick up more than 25 wickets in a single series. In the forthcoming series against West Indies, he also got his 2nd Test ton and also his 100th wicket in just his 18th Test which was another record. He was also part of the team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in England. He took a total of 8 wickets in 5 matches making him the joint-fifth highest wicket-taker of the tournament.

Ashwin went onto tweaking his deliveries and also his bowling action after a brief period of struggle where he was dropped from the team touring Australia in 2014. He was back to this best scalping up 31 wickets in a 4-match Test series against South Africa in late 2015. He improved his variations while bowling and this helped him keep his place in the squad for quite a long time. This, along with exploits with the bat, getting important runs for India in tricky situations has propelled him up the pecking order for the Indian team. He earned himself the ICC Player of the Year and also the ICC Test Player of the Year awards in 2016. In early 2017, Ashwin took over the record held by Dennis Lillee for becoming the fastest player to reach 250 wickets in just 45 Tests.

His Indian T20 League career has been astonishing as well as he has been a part of the League for every season since his debut apart from 2017, which he missed due to injury. He started off with Chennai, playing from 2009 until 2015, winning back-to-back titles as well in 2010 and 2011 where he picked up 13 and 20 wickets respectively. After Chennai's suspension, he was a part of the Pune franchise for 2016 and 2017 where he picked up his 100th scalp in 2016. In 2018, he was bought by the Punjab franchise in the auction for 7.6 crores and he was also named the captain. He played for 2 seasons with them accumulating 25 wickets during his stint. Ashwin has recently moved to the Delhi for the 2020 edition and will be looking to prove his value in the upcoming tournament.

The one issue that has supposedly haunted him all this while has been his displays outside the sub-continent. He has performed admirably in the Indian conditions winning the matches on his own but in away alien conditions, he has yet to display his true skill and talent, but there is no doubt that someone with his level of determination and vision will overcome his short-comings to make it back to the squad and perform at the level that we know he is capable of.