18 July,2015 08:27 AM IST | | PTI
One of the few off-spinners in world cricket with a clean action, India’s Ravichandran Ashwin admits that the need to use the allowed 15-degree flex does arise in the modern game even though he has learnt to bowl with a straight arm
New Delhi: One of the few off-spinners in world cricket with a clean action, India's Ravichandran Ashwin admits that the need to use the allowed 15-degree flex does arise in the modern game even though he has learnt to bowl with a straight arm.
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ashwin was criticised for bowling with long sleeves in Bangladesh in 2014 but the offie is unapologetic about following the fad for getting a âcompetitive edge'.
"As I said, forming rules is not my job; playing is. If there is a 15-degree rule to be used as an advantage, why should I lag behind? There is a precise advantage that I wanted to use. People started thinking I had gone mad but I did not take offence," Ashwin told ESPNCricinfo.
"I felt only mad people succeed in life and if you're mad about something and believe in something, you will come out on top.
"I felt to a greater degree that I did come out on top. If I hadn't ventured into those things, I would not have learned as much as I did," he added.
