Nagpur : Lauding the efforts of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun on Saturday said the Tamil Nadu cricketer is growing in stature with each series. Ashwin picked up figures of 12/98 against South Africa in the second Test here to gift his side a 124-run victory. “There is no great change in his bowling. The only thing is that now he is more aware of his strengths and has understood the angles at which he needs to bowl to be most effective. He was always a good bowler but now he is growing in stature with each series because his awareness levels have improved tremendously,” Arun was quoted as saying by bcci.tv.
Arun said what has made Ashwin a better bowler now is that he uses his variations sparingly. “He is one of the best off-spinners around. The challenge was for him to say, ‘I will trouble the best in the world with my off-spin’. The fact is that he is a lot more consistent in bowling his off-spin right now. That means his variations are a big surprise. Of course, he has got a lot of them up his sleeve, but he uses them very sparingly,” he said. “This is the X factor in his bowling right now.” Asked about what he and Ashwin discuss in the nets, Arun said: “My job is only to make him understand the different angles and we speak about it a lot.”