Adithya Ashok: Vellore-born Kiwi leggie keen to make his mark against India

The name of Adithya Ashok, the latest in the lineage of Indian origin spinners for New Zealand, has already evoked some curiosity ever since the Kiwis landed at Vadodara to kickstart their white ball series on Sunday. It will be quite a baptism by fire for the 23-year-old leg spinner as he will be up against a heavyweight Indian batting line-up, spearheaded by the in-form Ro-Ko combine, in the first of the three ODIs.

 Adithya, born in Vellore – the well known medical and education hub around 140 kms away from Chennai – follows in the footsteps of his senior partner Ish Sodhi, young allrounder Rachin Ravindra who is already a popular figure here, Ajaz Patel, Tarun Nethula and goes back to Deepak Patel in the Nineties. With barely two ODIs behind him, the onus will be on Adithya on how to approach his 10 overs to strike against the seasoned Indian batters.

 Speaking during a virtual interaction with select Indian media, Adithya felt ‘’it’s an opportunity to test’’ himself against greats of the game like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. ‘’They have a blockbuster squad. It may be a cliché but cricket is like a religion here and I am fortunate to have a prior experience of attending a spinners’ camp here,’’ said the cricketer whose parents migrated to New Zealand with he was four.

There seems to be almost a tryst of destiny between him and the city of Chennai. If Adithya was born at the Vellore Hospital, a three-hour drive drive from Chennai and came back there a number of times with his parents on vacation – Cricket New Zealand had sent him for a two-week camp at the Chennai Super Kings Academy last year.

 ‘’There’s a lot of stuff that we learnt that was really cool. For example, black soil and red soil and how those pitches behave and things like that. I think those are the big takeaways for me and it’s just kind of building my library as a cricketer which is probably the most important thing,’’ Adithya said. Groomed as Ish Sodhi’s understudy at the moment, Adithya is yet to break into their T20 squad and feels there is a lot he has been picking up as an understudy of Sodhi.

 ‘’If you ask me who my favourite leg spinner of all time is, it’s tough to go past Shane Warne. But growing up in New Zealand, it was really cool to see him (Sodhi), I’m really fortunate to have the relationship with him now, but someone like Ish is big for me in terms of being like a big brother,’’ he said.

Intriguingly enough for a new generation Kiwi, Adithya has a Tamil phrase tattooed on his bowling arm: En vazhi thani vazhi in Tamil (my way is a unique way). When asked about it, he revealed that it was a dialogue from a Rajnikant starrer – a film which he had watched with his late grandfather.

When asked it by the media, Adithya shared a personal story on the origin of the tattoo: ‘’During one of my visits to India, I had this long conversation with my grandfather as I realised it would be possibly the last time I would be meeting him. As the Rajni movie was playing, he advised me on how to work for the good for the people. The moment had remained with me and hence, the decision to do the tattoo,’’ he said.

While Adithya had thrived on the guidance from Sodhi and ex-international Nethula, another former New Zealand cricketer Paul Wiseman has been a pillar of support for Ashok and was there by his side when he struggled with a back injury that required a surgery, quite rare for a spinner.