IPL: R Ashwin recalls his early days at Chennai Super Kings, efforts he made to impress captain MS Dhoni

Chennai, June 17: Senior India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is one of those players who caught the attention of MS Dhoni in the IPL and gradually progressed into the national team.

Ashwin became popular after playing for Chennai Super Kings under MS Dhoni's leadership and climbed up the ladder. Dhoni nurtured the tall off-spinner and went on including him in the national side after observing the Tamil Nadu cricketer closely in the Indian Premier League.

According to Ashwin, impressing Dhoni - the T20 World Cup-winning Indian captain - back in 2008 wasn't easy for him. The Chennai Super Kings team comprised a legendary spinner in Muttiah Muralitharan and competing with the most-successful tweaker was never going to be easy for a rookie like Ashwin.

Talking about his early days in the CSK set up Ashwin told veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz how he had to work his way up in the side by impressing the likes of Dhonis, Matthew Haydens, Michael Husseys, Stephen Flemings, etc. Ashwin said he faced the monumental task of drawing the captain's attention towards him.

"I had caught the eye of Hayden, Fleming and Jacob Oram by bowling them in the nets. But somehow I wasn't being able to catch the attention of MS Dhoni. MS Dhoni did not know who Ashwin was. I had to catch the eye of MS Dhoni. So if I had caught the eyes of MS Dhoni, I had the best chance," the off-spinner said.

"I never had long conversations with MS. For me, it was all about bowling in the Chepauk nets and catch his eye," he added further.

He went on narrating the incident from Champions League T20 in South Africa where he bowled the Super Over for CSK and his team lost the game. But in the very next game, the skipper asked him to bowl the first over and that incident gave him a lot of confidence.

Talking about Dhoni's batting prowess in the early IPL seasons, Ashwin said the wicketkeeper-batsman is a lot calculative now but back then he was an aggressive batsman and used to hit every single ball out of the park.

"I would be waiting in the queue at the MA Chidambaram stadium where there was a net behind the stadium and one where they practice right next to the match turf. So MS and Suresh always batted at the centre. Queuing up to bowl to them at the centre was some sort of a yardstick. We didn't always get to do that. But when I did that for the first time, I was bowling alongside Muttiah Muralitharan. Every time Murali bowled to MS, MS hit the ball long.

"MS of today is a lot more calculated but I have seen him back then where he used to whack every single ball and every time Murali dragged the length back, MS hit it farther. There were at least 5-6 balls that scaled the roof of the MA Chidambaram stadium. I hadn't seen anybody hit the ball that far and that was every very new in that era. To hit sixes was something we weren't taught as youngsters," Ashwin said.

R Ashwin remained a core member of the CSK squad till 2015 before the franchise was suspended for two years. Ashwin played alongside Dhoni during IPL 2016 and 2017 in Rising Pune Supergiant but in the next year's IPL auction (IPL 2018) he was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 7.6 crores. Ahead of this year's IPL, he was traded with Delhi Capitals but the tournament remains postponed indefinitely due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.