Carving a niche

Ashwin Hebbar has given people of Nellore a reason to rejoice

November 21, 2014 06:42 pm | Updated 06:43 pm IST

Crickter Ashwin Hebbar

Crickter Ashwin Hebbar

His 250 against Haryana and 175 against Jharkhand in the Cooch Behar fixtures made the selectors come to an agreement to blood him in first class circuit. Nineteen-year-old Ashwin Hebbar found a place in Mohammad Kaif-led Andhra Ranji team for the season thus bolstering the team’s middle-order.

Nellore turned jubilant when after a long gap, a player from the district was picked for the Ranji team. “The last man to earn the cap was all rounder Fayaq Ahmed,” recollects Andhra Cricket Association statistician G. Phani. Ashwin is a product of ACA’s academy concept which took shape in 2010. The sprucing up of three academies at Mangalagiri, Kapada and Vizianagaram for three age groups has done a world of good to junior cricket.

“Players like Ashwin Hebbar, Naren Reddy, Ricky Bhui, MUB Sriram and Karan Shinde are the products of these academies,” says a proud Prasad. For an introvert, who is an avid reader, this season will be an important one for he will aim to cement his place if opportunities are given by the management to perform.

“He has been performing consistently in the junior grade and it is imperative to promote him to keep his morale high. He is also a good fielder in the point-cover region and he is good team man who bowls at gentle medium pace,” says Srinivas Reddy, an ACA coach.

Many administrators and coaches rate Ashwin high when it came to patience. “He has loads of it and he loves to play a waiting game. He has all the strokes but he plays according to situation,” says Prasad. Ashwin had a dream run in the junior grade by slamming more than 500 runs in many seasons and he led Andhra team to win the South Zone under-16 honours.

Many feel that lack of flamboyance like Karan Shinde and Ricky Bhui was the main reason for Ashwin efforts going unnoticed. “He is a quiet bloke. He minds his business and he is not the noisy type to draw the attention,” says a coach.

A darling of coaches, Ashwin always places his team before self. “He is a quintessential middle order batsman but when team demanded, he opened the innings for team and scored big runs. But when it came to national selections he could not match the performance of the regular openers of the rival teams,” says Prasad.

Andhra begins its Ranji voyage from December 7 at Vizag against Hyderabad and will wind up in early February (2015) after playing seven matches and Ashwin certainly has his work cut out for him.

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