When delivering the carrom ball, Ashwin spins the ball using half as many revolutions as he would with one of his regular deliveries. The ball is released out of the front of the hand as opposed to the side, using the middle digit to impart spin. As a result, it is very difficult for the opposing batsman to distinguish and therefore a dangerous tool of deception.

With this magnitude of spin, the ball’s trajectory is much straighter and results in many wickets as the opposing batsman often plays down the wrong line of trajectory. As a result, Ashwin, who is one of the very few operators of this delivery in the world game, has one of the highest percentages of dismissals for leg before wicket in Test cricket to date.

All this has combined to make Ravichandran Ashwin one of the most effective bowlers in today’s modern game.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com

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