Need bit of luck to be successful in foreign conditions: Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin (IANS)

Chennai, April 27:  India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes if a bowler wants to be successful in overseas conditions then apart from being a good craftsman, he needs a bit of luck to be on his side as well.

Ashwin is regarded as one of the finest spinners ever to wear the Indian jersey in the longest format but there is a clear daylight difference between his form on home conditions and on foreign soil.

Ashwin -- who holds the record for fastest 250, 300 and 350 (joint fastest) Test wickets -- struggled to reach his own high standards on India's latest tours of South Africa, England and Australia. Fitness issues haven't been kind either as the tweaker missed one Test in England in 2018 and three matches Down Under in the 2018/19 series.

"The number of games that I have managed to win for my country and myself... the number of successes that I have had...the excellence that I have shown is measured up in equal parlance when I travel abroad," Ashwin told Sanjay Manjrekar during an ESPNcricinfo video chat.

"I would like to achieve the same wherever I go. And increasingly the number of games that I have played in England, I have realised that for a spinner to be bowling in alien conditions and repeat same numbers, you need to be bowling in all the possible right times in the game. Secondly you need a little bit of luck.

"There are opportunities that I have missed. I have been anyway very critical of myself and I feel even I have been very harsh on myself in those conditions seeing what people are talking. We don't know when we will get back to cricket and when we will travel abroad but I feel my best days are still lying ahead," he added.

The 33-year-old has so far played 71 Tests, 111 ODIs and 46 T20Is in which he has scalped 365, 150 and 52 wickets respectively.