Everything fell in place today: Aaron

In the first five matches of Pepsi IPL 2015, R Ashwin bowled an average of 2.4 overs per match. In CSK’s three away games, he bowled only four overs altogether.

It is not something CSK’s most-successful bowler is used to. He has been MS Dhoni’s trump card over the years and has played a crucial role in CSK’s sustained success.However, back in his own backyard – his beloved Chepauk – Ashwin blossomed.

Against KXIP, the off-spinner bowled his quota of four overs for parsimonious figures of 2 for 14. Off the 24 balls he bowled, 12 yielded no run.After CSK cruised to a whopping 97-run win over the hapless Kings XI Punjab, Ashwin spoke to iplt20.

com about the trend in bowling this IPL season and assessed the relaid Chennai wicket. An ardent player in the IPL Fantasy League, he also told us why he didn’t pick himself in his fantasy team.Did you have R Ashwin in your IPL Fantasy team today?I play IPL Fantasy on a daily basis.

It’s quite a lot of fun but I am also pretty serious about it. I try and not make any substitutions in my team on the day CSK are playing because it is very hard to take calls. I get a little emotional and make wrong decisions.

I don’t like to do that because I want to win in whatever I do, even in the fantasy league. So, I actually didn’t have myself on the team today.In the last three away games you bowled only four overs.

Did it feel good to be back home in your den?I expect myself to be bowling four overs in every game. But we play six bowlers in every game and sometimes it is the game scenario that dictates who bowls and how many overs. Sometimes, when the seamers have bowled well and you don’t get to bowl in the first 10 overs, it gets very difficult to have four overs in the last 10.

These are the challenges that I am facing personally and I will have to see how I can fit into the mix. I want to be prepared to bowl four overs in every game and to the best of my abilities. To add to that, I want to bowl the way I want to bowl, because the ball is coming out really well and I would like to pick wickets each time I bowl.

Spin has always been CSK’s strength. But this season we are seeing that pacers are doing really well for you guys. Does it please you from the team’s perspective?I think in a bid to make the Indian players better equipped on the overseas tours, there is more grass left on the wickets this time.

It is too early to comment how much effect it will have on the tournament but I think the grass on the wicket is definitely aiding the fast bowlers with the new ball. And as the game goes on, because the ball remains more or less the same in a 20-over innings, it stays on pretty well. That is becoming a challenge for the spinners.

If you see, even when the spinners have picked wickets this season, they have gone for 35-40 runs. This has been the trend so far in this IPL and I think the team that will assess it and adapt to it well will succeed.Does having an all-Indian bowling attack help CSK, given that you have an Indian captain as well?MS (Dhoni) is someone who bells the cat as it goes around.

He doesn’t have any preconceived notions and goes into the game very blank. Once he is there, he just operates on his instincts as to who is bowling well and how the wicket is behaving. He has managed some good overseas bowlers in the past as well, the likes of (Muttiah) Muralitharan, (Doug) Bollinger and (Ben) Hilfenhaus.

So, I don’t think it makes much difference to him, but as an Indian bowler it definitely makes a difference to have an Indian captain. It makes you more comfortable and confident coming in.You have played at this ground all your life.

Do you think the relaid wicket has maintained the character of the previous Chepauk wicket?I think this wicket is close to being the way it was when I started playing. In 2006-07, even on the first day of a four-day game, if there was no spin, there would still be a steep bounce and we would be catching people off their gloves. It is getting there and I think with a little more time it will get closer.

It is difficult for the groundsmen to get that sheen on the pitch during the months of May and June. Having said that, it still has the bounce. The last two games it had more bounce than today.

Today it was a little slower but the ball was hitting the batsmen on the glove, so I am really enjoying it.Talk about Ashish Nehra. He has been such a revelation this season for CSK.

When I first came into the Indian team in 2009, Ashish Nehra was one of the lead bowlers of the team. In India the bowlers tend to be written off very easily. We are not a bowler’s nation.

It is very hard to be in a bowler’s shoes, know what he is thinking and what bowling is all about. The game is constantly changing and with that the parameters also need to change. We are more comfortable judging a bowler than a batsman and that is the reason we write off a good bowler.

Ashish Nehra to me is one of the finest bowlers that India has produced. He did great service to the Indian team from 2006 till 2011. He was one of the lynchpins of our 2011 World Cup winning side as well.

What I admire about him is that he never sulks. He picks up the new ball, bowls in the powerplay, bowls in the death, whether it is AB de Villiers or Yuvraj Singh he is up against. He never complains and always gives his 100 per cent.

To add to that, he is a left-armer. He is someone you would love to have in your team..

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