I have the Streets - Ravichandran Ashwin's KuTTi story

I Have the Streets

Ravichandran Ashwin and Sidharth Monga 

Sports / Autobiography / 175 pages/ Paperback 

I RARELY read books - probably put that to my poor powers of concentration ( How that drums up when i watch TV/movies i do not know 😁) . If i had to read a book , it has to be very specific about a personality or a topic which i am passionate about - in this case it was BOTH. 

If you have been following Indian cricket, you know Ravichandran Ashwin. A cricketer who till almost 20 was mainly an opening/middle order batter having close to 750 International wickets across formats. Ashwin will be the first to admit that a lot of this was due to his cricketing brain, his attitude for a fight than the actual magic of his fingers/wrist!

I have read a lot of cricket stories - Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, VVS Laxman. The one common thread, especially for an Indian cricketer is how big a role a family member (or the entire family) plays in shaping their careers and getting them to the ultimate stage , after which they etched their own legend!

In the same way, Ashwin's KuTTi story tells you his journey from a lower middle class Chennai suburb,  his street cricket, his passion for the game,  his health issues growing up, the support  of his parents , from street cricket to club cricket, eventually  rocketing  into International cricket, culminating with him becoming a Champions League T20 and a Cricket World cup winner! 

The book expectedly provides you a great inside view into  Ashwin's brain, his intellect and his pursuit of success in all his endeavours. If you are follow his current media engagements - Crikipedia , as well as his collaborations with PDogg Prasanna Aghoram, one of the earliest cricket analysts from India, who eventually made South Africa his home),  you  will concur.

Mid way through the book - there are a couple of pages when he talks about Off spin bowling. The level of detail is absolutely mind boggling - specially when most people think spin bowling is not difficult and it is  just about  taking a few steps and turning his arm over (like making a jalebi or murukku ).

Even though i followed the game all my life -  for a couple of crucial years - 2008 through 2010 mid, while i was abroad  -  IPL etc happened and many such cricketers came through - why i never knew Ashwin., so this was book was an intriguing read. I also learnt how big a role WV Raman played as Ashwin's coach. While Raman was an underachiever internationally as a cricketer, his coaching stints with Tamil Nadu and the Indian women's cricket team are highly successful . Hopefully his turn as an Indian men's team coach will also happen.

In 2010, when i was back in India and to following the game more actively - Ashwin was still making his mark - until a pivotal ODI series which Gautam Gambhir captained, catapulted  him as a mystery spinner for the 2011 world cup and more importantly laid the foundation of his relationship  with MSD. 

The book is a breezy 3/4 hour read, albeit a little technical and too much of what you may not want to know. He is gracious in his praise of his close friends in  RUCA (his local under arm cricket team). His courting of Prithi Narayanan also gets a brief mention. Little  disappointed to know  where this book was ending , pretty much just the start of his career.

I am certain there will be another chapter of Ashwin's story (and not so KuTTi) where we can hope know more of what he ends up with,  surprisingly ALL pundits  with his longevity and wicket taking ability, especially in test matches.

Hopefully we get to see more of his partnership with MSD, his test centuries ( perhaps why he underachieved ) , his Gabba innings, the leg side "leave" against Pakistan in the T20 world cup, the IPL Mankading, his TNPL patronage, how he had overcome predictability in his bowling and tried to stay relevant. That part seems really much more exciting  to look forward to!