Ashwin’s target is to score 10 tons in his career: Srinivasan

With four centuries and 10 half-centuries to his credit, Ashwin is looking more dangerous a batsman than before and his time with P Srinivasan, his new coach, has started paying dividends. 

According to Srinivasan, Ashwin’s success is a by-product of is work ethic. “Ashwin is a champion bowler. He wants to be a good batsman. He wants to end his career with at least 10 hundreds with a healthy average of 45. Once we identified what and how he could flourish, the results were just a matter of time,” Srinivasan said. 

The coach said Ashwin is a very good timer of the ball and the duo worked on a few technical aspects. “I worked on his hand movement (not jabbing at the ball) and how the hands can be soft and on how to get on top of the ball. We spoke about how to deal the initial temptations, the nervousness. His bat used to come from fine-leg and he had to turn a bit to play on the leg side. We worked on that aspect and now his back lift comes from the slip cordon so that he can play more freely on the leg side,” he added. 

Before the New Zealand series, Srinivasan worked with Ashwin on how to face Trent Boult and now for Australia series they have their plans in place. “Definitely we have plans on how to tackle Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. We will be working on it. Before every series, we work on a particular bowler, which he (Ashwin) feels is necessary. Ahead of the Bangladesh series, we worked on how to handle left-arm spinners,” the coach added. 

Ashwin, armoured with the changes, has come out more confident as a batsman and Srinivasan believes more sixes are expected from his bat in the future. “He used to hit from a low base (less back lift). We worked on a 360-degree complete bat flow. We saw the six he hit off Mooen Ali (in an ODI), the bat flow is different from what he had earlier. After hitting that six, he told me that he was very happy about the bat flow. You will see him hit more sixes,” Srinivasan added. 

Ravichandran Ashwin’s coach P Srinivasan has been in the limelight for shaping the off-spinner’s batting style. Into coaching for 20 years, Srinivasan was a former TNCA club cricketer who has worked with different coaching academies. Srinivasan has the expertise of working with a few international coaches like Peter Wellings and Oscar Nauhas.