Ravichandran Ashwin’s spin wizardry lights path for India’s spell of dominance

Tall at 6ft 2in and as persistently accurate in finding his target as a mosquito when Ravichandran Ashwin eventually hangs up his spikes and the tributes pour in from all quarters this first Test against once formidable West Indies in Dominica will surely be cited among one of the very best of his bowling performances for IndiaAshwin had already sent the match on a seemingly irreversible path with the ball on the opening day taking five for 60 in 243 overs as Kraigg Brathwaitersquos side were gutted for 150 all out Anyonewho spent the rainy afternoon tracking Windiesrsquo stagger around India will remember the offspinner wiping out batting lineups with the ease of a lazy swipe of the monopoly boardA worldclass bowler the fastest to 300 Test wickets he had for tactical reasons Indian selectors seem to know better been carrying the drinks around Australia in WTC final this summer Following Indiarsquos distasteful thrashing at the Oval though the clamour has been growing for him to play in the Windies Test seriesSave debutant lefthander Alick Athanaze 47 off 99 who batted responsibly till his dismissal none of the Caribbean batters had the technique to survive on a slow turner as none of them could even cross 20run mark asAshwin and the pitch preyed on scrambled mindsJustifying his top billing in ICC Test bowlers ranking the 36yearold varied his pace bowling a few sliders and pushing some other deliveries across to right handers while effectively using the drift to bowl conventional offbreaks to lefthandersMaking full use of the slow twopaced track that also offered turn and bounce Ashwin had reasons to be chuffed as he became third Indian bowler after Anil Kumble 956 wickets and Harbhajan Singh 711 to complete 700 scalps across formats in international cricket besides achievingthe distinction of being first Indian bowler to dismiss father and son when he got rid of Shivnarine Chanderpauls son Tagenarine having dismissed the father on his Test debut in 2011Also Read India dominant in Dominica bowls out West Indies for 150 on Day 1With more than an hour available for batting skipper Rohit Sharma 30 batting 65 balls and debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal 40 batting 73 balls added 80 runs for the opening stand to bring down first innings deficit to 70 going into second day The new opening pair looked comfortable as there is not much help for the bowlers with Indian skipper hitting his customary Nataraja pullshot and soothing straight driveRuns on the board only go so far to explain this with Ashwin in particular relentless in his probing of defences using all the variety and changes of pace that emerge from his cocktailshaking finger spin and mate Ravindra Jadeja 326 in 14 overs beautifully complementing him to make life miserable for the home team battersThe tireless Mohammed Siraj 122251 also deserves a lot of credit as he bowled a beautiful fuller length during first session changed his tactic to use a lot more bouncers postlunch to hurry the batters on a slow trackOne such delivery accounted for Jason Holder who took the bait and was holed out at square leg boundary for the fielder stationed for that mistimed pullshot Siraj was also brilliant on the field as his diving catch at midoff to dismiss Jermaine Blackwood off Jadejas bowling was top notch effortThe decision to bat on a track that offered turn and bounce on very first day backfired for Caribbean batters most of whom lacked requisite patience to deal with itShardul Thakur 73151 operating as the third seamer in overseas conditions for the first time continued with his happy knack of picking wickets with Jaydev Unadkat 72170 also doing his job commendablyOpting to bat first West Indies openers Chanderpaul 12 44 balls and skipper Kraigg Brathwaite 20 off 46 balls went into a shell during the first hour as both Siraj and Unadkat beating the outside edge of both batters on multiple occasionsTagenarines stance and trigger shuffle from leg to offstump does have an uncanny resemblance with his illustrious father Shivnarine although he is slightly more sideon compared to his Old ManSensing his shuffle Ashwin got one to hang in the air and drift into the southpaw who played inside the line only to find it beat his outside edge after pitching and there was a death rattleWest Indies skipper Brathwaite easily the best Test batter in the side over the last five years was increasingly getting frustrated as Ashwin bowled slightly quicker at times to himHe did try to hit out of trouble with a slog swept boundary but the canny operator fired one across the line inducing Brathwaite to go for a mindless bottomhanded slog over midon However the mistimed slog only became easiest skiers for skipper Rohit Sharma stationed at coverLefthanded Raymon Reifer 2 off 18 balls never looked in control as Siraj softened him up with some short ballsSo when Thakur who is a notch slower came into the attack he wanted to come on frontfoot and get his cover drive going Thakur quickly slipped one across the stumps and the thick outside edge was snapped by a diving Ishant Kishan behind the stumpsIn the post lunch session Athanaze who looked most comfortable against Ashwin did hit some lusty blows but was done in by slowness of the track as he couldnt time a short ball and the skier was gobbled up by ThakurAlso Read Would you drop a No 1 Test batterOver the years the lanky allrounder has bowled offbreaks carrom balls the undercutter legbreaks googlies and on occasion in the nets even slow leftarm orthodox As a younger man this was Ashwinrsquos way of staying one step ahead of batsmen When one thing did not work he would try something else Anything but giving the ball away to another bowlerWith age has come maturity and the realisation that what looks exciting and may appeal to any Indian Premier League IPL franchise does not impress Test batsmen much With experience has come the knowledge that each delivery need not look different in order to provide variationIf his career has been marked by an obsession with the game and in this case the word comes without the baggage of the negative connotations sometimes attached to it it has been kept alive by a constant quest to reinvent himself and stay relevant Every cricketer will tell you that the day you stop learning the day you believe you have mastered the game is when it comes back to bite youFor Ashwin the learning curve has continued to trend upwards because he is more acutely aware of himself as a human being and cricketer now than when he was beginning At 36 Ashwin understands his limitations of body more than anything else and has used his mind to overcomeAll told Brathwaitersquos men have simply met an India side better equipped for the extreme but not unfair conditions rolled out in Dominica and must go into the second day on Thursday knowing parity is a halfway scoreline they would have taken Their visitors will be brimming with confidence however and none more so than the irrepressible Ashwin