When Ravichandran Ashwin got inkling about being handed a Test cap, one of the first phone calls he made was to his coach Sunil Subramaniam. The Chennai-based logistics manager in turn dialed the vice-president of his company and took a week off from work, climbing aboard the first-available flight to Delhi. Ashwin, on his part, had asked his teammate and Delhi boy Virat Kohli to ensure that Subramaniam got one of the best seats at the Kotla. It would also ensure a short class with the coach at the end of the day — if things didn’t go according to plan in the middle.
Things actually went beautifully. Ashwin bettered his 3/81 in the first innings with a 6/47 in the second. His tally of 9 for 128, which also included a double-wicket maiden in the West Indies second innings, was the best by an Indian bowler on debut after Narendra Hirwani’s 16 for 136 against the same opponents in Chennai.
Former leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan said while doing commentary that he was part of the junior selection committee when Ashwin’s dream of becoming a batsman was cut short. The Chennai ‘School of Cricket’ has a tradition of giving budding cricketers a reality check — Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were keen fast bowlers before they were turned away by the MRF Pace Foundation. But young Ashwin’s career was revived by Subramaniam during a TNCA academy trial six years ago.
He could not have asked for a better debut as R Ashwin became only the third cricketer ever to get a Man of the Match in his first Test and as he prepares to get married in a few days, the off-spinner wondered if the nine-wicket haul against the West Indies is a wedding gift.
Ashwin scalped nine wickets, including a 6/47 in the second innings, in the opening Test, which India won by five wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. Set to enter wedlock on November 13, Ashwin said he did not expect a debut so good.
It’s a pleasing effort. I expected to get a few wickets but not so many. I don’t know if its gift for me and my wife before the marriage but it is a very happy feeling to go into my wedding with such a performance,” Ashwin said at the post-match presentation ceremony
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