He was born to play Test cricket: Ravichandran Ashwin's childhood coach Sunil Subramaniam
Sunil Subramaniam could never quite put his finger on why he failed to break into the Indian team despite being one of the country's best left-arm spinners in the early 1990s.
It rankles, but the pain pales in comparison to the joy his most illustrious ward, Ravichandran Ashwin, brought to his life, years after he had quit playing competitive cricket.
The 57-year-old, who taught Ashwin the nuances of spin bowling in his formative years, takes great pride in saying that the senior India spinner "was born to play Test cricket."
"I had a lot of confidence that he would become a good Test player and a quality Test bowler, first a match-winner for the state then a match-winner for India," Subramaniam told PTI Videos in an exclusive interview.
"At that time, it was difficult to say that his journey would be this long. As he was on his journey, it became obvious he would have a long career."
"I'd be lying to say that we think that he is going to end up playing 100 Tests. But, I certainly knew that we had a Test cricketer in the making, and a good one at that," he added.
Despite enjoying a fairly successful career in first-class cricket, Subramaniam is best known as Ashwin's childhood coach, but he has no qualms about it.
"When I met him in 2007, at the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association's bowler's camp, the journey started there. We had to discover the next generation of bowlers."
"Slowly, he progressed from first-class cricket to Test cricket, his bowling evolved, and he understood how to study the wicket."
"When you play first-class cricket, you have a different mindset compared to Test cricket; you take time to adapt to the environment, but he took no time at all, and it felt like he was born to play Test cricket."
NOT DONE YET
Ashwin is going strong at 37, claiming a bagful of wickets with his absolute control and consistency. So, Subramaniam has no reason to believe that the man would hang up his boots anytime soon.
"As a player, definitely about three to four years for sure at the international level, and the call will be his after that," Subramaniam said when the discussion turned to Ashwin's future.
"He debuted at the age of 25, how long will he be able to play? Because many people in India play cricket, how much competition will he have. If you look at the bowling attack of India in the last five to 10 years, it has become really potent.
"How long his journey will be? At every stage, he has evolved. And his bowling for the last nine years has been the fulcrum for India."
Besides his incredible numbers, Ashwin's relentless quest for perfection is a matter of great pride for Subramaniam.
"It is something to be happy about because we coach many players, he has performed at every level, he has maintained his balance. The way he used to bowl in the beginning he still bowls the same, and the man is also the same.
"He has stability, and other factors did not distract him, and this is a lesson for all youngsters. If you focus on your game you can achieve anything."
Coming back to what the future holds for Ashwin, Subramaniam feels Ashwin can go on to play at the elite level till at least he is 40.
"There can be many roles in sports if you are talking about the role of a player, today's fitness standards are such that he can play till he is 40 at the international level, because his quality of bowling is good.
"It will be his call, what role he wants to play, how many years he wants to play, that call he will take on his own."
Ashwin has 511 Test wickets at present, making him only the second Indian bowler after Anil Kumble to go past the 500-wicket mark.
"He is somebody who understood the game and the wavelength was pretty good. I'm someone who was looking for an intelligent spinner and he was both intelligent, hearty and knew what he could do.
"Right from the time he made his first-class debut and the kind of bowler he was in his first twenty-odd Test matches, and then to have evolved further from that and to go on to reach different milestones, he has reinvented himself at every point in that journey and kept himself relevant."
"So, it has been a fascinating journey for him, to see the way he has evolved over some time in his career, developing new balls, setting up new batsmen, adapting to different conditions."
CRICKET-CRAZY FAMILY
Ashwin's mother Chitra Ravichandran was lying in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a Chennai hospital, slipping in and out of consciousness as he breached the 500 Test-wickets barrier.
His mother had just one query for her son when she saw him by her bedside -- "Why did you come?"
To this, Subramaniam stated, "I have said this before the whole family is cricket crazy, and cricket is a huge priority there, and everybody is obsessed with the game. It's only that kind of obsession that has carried him and I am not surprised to hear all that.
"Cricket is the number one priority even during the health crisis."
