Next generation of bowlers can forget about taking 1000 international wickets: Ashwin | Cricket News

Ashwin says reduction in Tests, emergence of T20 leagues will make it difficult to emulate Shane Warne‘s feat
NEW DELHI: As the calendar gets busier, breaking records seems to get harder for contemporary cricketers. As a case in point, while being felicitated for his 100th Test last week, Virat Kohli had mentioned that he was proud to have lasted so long in this day and age.
“In present-day cricket, with three formats and IPL, the only takeaway from my career for the next generation is that I could strive through and play the purest format this long,” Kohli had said on the morning of the first Test match against Sri Lanka in Mohali.

Now off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has claimed that the next generation of bowlers will find it hard to take 1000 international wickets like Shane Warne did. In an ode to Warne, who passed away on Friday, Ashwin spoke on his YouTube channel.
“Shane Warne was a colourful character and he redefined the term bowling. He has taken more than 1000 international wickets. Not many can achieve this rare feat. In fact, the next generation of bowlers can forget to even think about getting 1000 international wickets,” Ashwin said in the video released on Tuesday.

“The volume of Test cricket will come down drastically. And also because there are so many leagues, workload management will take centrestage,” he said.
Ashwin went past Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 Test wickets on Sunday and has 648 international wickets across three formats. Warne had 1001 international wickets in two formats while Muttiah Muralitharan has 1347 wickets across three formats and Anil Kumble has 956 international wickets. Pacers Glenn McGrath, James Anderson and Wasim Akram are the only other bowlers to have taken over 900 international wickets.

‘Accident helped Warne master craft’
“I see Warne as a flag bearer for carrying the spin aspect of bowling on the front in the world cricketing map,” Ashwin said. “Warne brought spin as an attacking commodity to this cricketing world. Even when there wasn’t much happening on the surface, he used to take wickets just with his sheer intimidating presence,” Ashwin said.
“I used to see people who master their art with some admiration and Shane Warne was one such gem. He was one of those bowlers I will pay to watch,” he added.
Ashwin, now India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests, also spoke about how a traumatic childhood accident in which he broke both legs helped Warne master one of the most difficult crafts in the game. “I was talking to Rahul Dravid, who was extremely sad. For a spinner, your shoulder and upper-half of the body has to be extremely strong because you have to use many rotations to spin the ball,” Ashwin said.

“Because for a spinner to master your craft, you should keep bowling in the nets. More so, if you are a leg-spinner. He had strong shoulders and that was his massive advantage.”
Ashwin said Dravid asked Warne how he had such strong shoulders. “It is such a unique story. There is a sport called Aussies Rules Football. It is a sport like rugby. It seems Warne wanted to play the sport but was not built for it since people who play it are tall and well-built blokes. So, they used to bully Warne and it seems he broke both his legs while playing. He couldn’t walk and was on bed rest. For 3-4 weeks he walked or rather floated using his bare hands and that made his shoulders strong and there was no looking back,” Ashwin said.

‘Dad advised me to bowl medium-pace so I could be next Kapil’
While thanking his fans for wishing him on his feat of going past Kapil Dev, Ashwin revealed he had taken up medium-pace in hope of becoming the next pace-bowling allrounder after Kapil.

“In 1994, batting was my fascination. Sachin Tendulkar was just emerging into the scene and Kapil Dev, himself was a terrific striker of the ball. “In fact, I used to bowl medium pace on my dad’s advice back then so that I can try to be the next Kapil paaji. From then to become an off-spinner and to represent India for so many years…I never thought I would play for India,” Ashwin said.