IPL 2018: Ashwin's switch to leg-spin shows the normal would no longer work

Ravichandran Ashwin made an impressive start to his stint as the Kings XI Punjab captain with a win over Delhi Daredevils on Sunday, but it was something else that caught the eye

Watching Ravichandran Ashwin bowl is one of the more pleasing sights in cricket. Forever thinking and forever trying, Ashwin is a riveting embodiment of how you can ably fuse skill with effort. And, for the longest time, he was a nonpareil spinner who ruled the world with a unique incisiveness and patience otherwise rare to find. Along the way, he was, obviously, helped by a frightening repertoire of variations he had so remarkably built to compensate for the somewhat vapid trajectories of off-spin.

Don’t let the slightly alarmist tone of it all sway you; Ashwin, at least for now, remains India’s