India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said he felt “demoralised” while bowling to the former Indian-opener Virender Sehwag.
Talking in a chat show ‘What the Duck 2’, Ashwin recalled his tryst with Sehwag at a net session a few years ago.
“Sehwag was never complicated. He had a demoralising effect on me actually,” Ashwin said.
Recalling an incident in Dambulla, Ashwin said that “every ball that I bowled, first ball I bowled outside off stump, Sehwag cut me. Next ball I bowled on off stump, he cuts me. Next ball I bowled on middle stump, he cuts me. The next ball I bowl on leg stump, he again cuts me. So I said ‘what the hell is happening’ So I just bowled a ball fuller, Sehwag stepped out and slugged me out for a six.”
Ashwin, who was struggling to earn a spot in the Indian team at that time, was clueless as to what to do.
“So I said to myself either I am just not good enough or this guy is just way too good ... which he was. But to the greater Sachin Tendulkar also, I didn’t struggle with bowling so much in the nets. I was very inquisitive. I observed this for a few days.”
Unsure as to what to do, Ashwin appoached Sehwag for advice on what he should do to improve.
“If I had asked it to Sachin,” Ashwin said, “he would have given me some tips. If it were MS [Dhoni], he would have given me a perspective.[However] Viru said ‘You know what, I don’t think off-spinners are bowlers. They do not trouble me at all. I just find it easy smashing them’.”
When Ashwin replied that Sehwag was cutting him off, Sehwag replied “Yeah, I hit off-spinners against the spin on the off side and for left-arm spinners, I will hit against the spin on the leg side.”
“I said, ‘okay, fine’,” Ashwin recounted. “The next day I tried something in the nets - he again started hitting me in different zones. He was actually treating me like a road-rag. Like how I would treat a 10- year-old kid, if I was batting against him.”
After being thrashed on multiples occassions by Sehwag during the net sessions, Ashwin finally managed to figure out a way to get the better of the hard-hitting batsman.
He found out that the best possible plan against Sehwag was to bowl every single ball as “best rubbish ball”.
“And I got him out a few times in the IPL that way. Because what he expects is not what you dish out. Because he expects you to bowl good balls,” Ashwin said.
“I realised one fine day that it was his ego that you needed to bowl against. Because he gave me a very interesting story. He said he had fever in a game at Rohtak and smashed Harbhajan for 12 sixes. ‘You know Harbhajan is a good off spinner.’ I said, ‘Yeah Harbhajan is a good off spinner.’ But that doesn’t mean you smoke him for 12 sixes with fever.”
Ashwin said that when he asked him, Sehwag narrated the entire story behind it. “He [Sehwag] said he opened the innings and hit him for 2 sixes and came back due to fever. [Then] he went in at number 10 and smashed for another 10 sixes. The wicket was spinning square, you know. I asked, ‘Sir, what did you do?’ He said, ‘Every ball because it was spinning, I decided to smack him over the leg side.’ He said that he hit him even from outside the pitch. Outside off stump and hit him for a six on the leg side.”
“So basically for Sehwag, it was very simple, he hit people on good balls. So my simple strategy to Sehwag was to bowl rubbish balls. And it worked. Because when you start bowling rubbish balls, he starts dictating the pace to you with your rubbish balls or your so-called against him,” the 30-year-old all rounder added.
Ashwin also said that Sehwag was least interested in team meetings to discuss strategy. Sehwag, he said, “just wanted to see the ball and hit it.”
“There used to be team meetings or huddles, followed by a short speech addressed by Gary [Kirsten, the former Indian coach],” Ashwin revealed. “MS [Dhoni] would then take over - he would not utter a word and say everything is good. That was how team meetings would end.”
