He started to change. His carromball used to be tossed up with the front of his hand, now he started doing reverse spin and also undercut the ball by slipping his finger under the seam to straighten the ball. It is the reverse spin that gives me the ability to get away from the left-handed player and move to the right-handed player. At times I also put my finger under the seam a little bit to straighten the ball, he once told Sky Sports. Poor Labuschagne got a live demonstration.
To be fair, Labuschagne didn’t think to play the breakaway. Was it because he saw it wasn’t a normal away carrom, or because he didn’t see the release at all? Whatever the case, the end result was impressive. He put pressure on the line and the ball, which had deflected a bit sideways, straightened up just as Ashwin said it would and hit the off stump. Sundar was probably inspired by the replay.
The biggest battle around Labuschagenes was between Ashwin and David Warner. As a general rule, OTTs are not reviewedB Most of the time they do a great job with the highlights, but this movie on JioCinema packs a pretty neat punch. Under the title Ashwin Outwitted Right Warner, he captures all the mini-moments. How Warner switched to bat just after Pat Cummins ran onto the field with a message; how he made a quadruple hit as a right-handed batsman, causing laughter in the Aussie camp; and then Ashwin’s finishing shot.
It was a routine carrom, but Warner tried to do a reverse sweep – that is, play like a left-handed batsman, which he is after changing position – but the ball spun and hit him in the pads. Curiously, Warner didn’t apply DRS because the bottom edge was fixed, but by the time he swung the bat, he was already stretched out on the ground and may not have felt the impact. He just consulted with his partner about the lbw and walked back.
A few balls later, Josh Inglis hit Josh Inglis with another dreamy reverse carrom. Drift on this topic is worth watching on the channel. Again, t.he undercut spinning and the ball curls to the right of the out-off, lands on middle and off and then straightens up. Also, the ball was pretty full and the length was ahead of the intended sweep to nail Inglis lbw.
It was one of his best ODI matches and India’s leadership will have to make an exciting choice for the World Cup. Will they want to take Ashwin or will they hope Axar Patel gets in shape and ready to play? If the pitch is conducive to turn, the Ashwin batsman is more than capable of turning on the heat. Axar showed them what he is capable of doing with a narrowly missed winning goal against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. What will Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid decide?