Ashwin recalls Sehwag's not-so-kind quip : 'Off-spinners are not bowlers'

Ashwin recalls Sehwag's not-so-kind quip : 'Off-spinners are not bowlers'

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BCCI

R Ashwin, the world's best bowler last year, recalls the time when Virender Sehwag revealed how he thinks that off-spinners are not bowlers because they are too easy to smash. Ashwin was carted all over at nets by Sehwag but curiously foxed him by bowling "rubbish balls" instead of good ones.

During a chat show, R Ashwin recalled an incident when he was bowling to Sehwag in net practice and the explosive batsman was smashing him all over the place.

“There was an incident in Dambulla, where 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 said.

Ashwin, who was struggling to make a place in the Indian team at that time, talked about how he found the experience utterly demoralizing.

“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 too. I was very inquisitive. I observed this for a few days.”

He didn’t shy away from asking Sehwag on how he can improve his bowling, but he got a very typical Viru reply.

According to The Indian Express, he said, “But then I couldn’t hold myself back, I went to him (Sehwag) and asked, ‘so what should I do to improve’. If I had ask to Sachin, he would have given me some tips. If it were MS, he would have given me a perspective.”

“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’. I said ‘Sir you are cutting me’. He said, ‘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.”

However, Ashwin being Ashwin finally managed to figure out a way to deal with Sehwag and said that this technique has worked wonders against Sehwag.

“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."

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