Vellore-born NZ spinner Adithya Ashok eyes dream duel with Kohli & Rohit

Ashok, 23, was born in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, before moving to Auckland, New Zealand, at age four. The leg-spinner has played two ODIs and a T20I, and with New Zealand not having many regulars in the 50-over series, it offers Ashok the chance to bowl to two of cricket's modern-day legendary batters.

"It's a very exciting opportunity and challenge to play against those guys and, again, test yourself against people that are considered great and definitely are great. The things that they've done for the game and the things that they've achieved across their careers have been pretty phenomenal."

"So, again, for myself to go and potentially play against them and go out there and learn and try and understand and touch and feel greatness is really exciting for me," said Ashok, while replying to an IANS query in a select virtual interaction on Thursday.

Ashok sports the 'En vazhi thani vazhi' (My way is a unique way) tattoo on his bowling arm, which was a famous punchline from superstar Rajinikanth in his movie 'Padayappa' inked on his bowling arm. It's a tribute to the actor, as well as to Adithya's late grandfather, with whom he watched the movie before his demise.

The leg-spinner's last visit to India was for honing his bowling skills in a two-week spin camp at the CSK Academy in Chennai under lead coach Sriram Krishnamurthy, and he hopes to use that knowledge to the fullest when bowling to Kohli and Rohit.

"So, again, I'm going in with an opportunity mindset and a growth mindset and a really process-driven mindset where I'm trying to sit there and obviously bring my point of difference to the table in terms of what I bring currently and what I do best to the table and obviously then try and compete. But I'm really excited to play against Rohit, Kohli, and everyone else in that team. They're all phenomenal players, for sure," he added.

Rather than viewing the series as pressure-laden, Ashok is focused on incremental improvement and soaking in the learning experience of bowling in India. "I think you hit the nail on the head, and in terms of the word they use in terms of opportunity, and that's a big thing around this environment.

"The way that I've tried to go about things is being really process driven and understanding that if I can go away from this series and have learnt new methods or learnt about myself as a cricketer and learnt about myself as a person and just really enjoyed the experience, I think that puts me in a richer position than anything else."

"Obviously, success would be great and things like that. But I think if you're able to remove expectation and remove the emotions surrounding the outcome, I think that almost puts you in the best position to learn and get better. My focus has always been firmly around how can I get better - because if I'm continuing to get one percent better every day, then I feel like the results kind of take care of themselves."

"So, to answer your question, it's just an opportunity and an exciting one to play in a country where cricket means so much and where cricket is constantly buzzing. It's a really exciting opportunity for me," he elaborated.

Ashok, who represented New Zealand in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, has role models in Australia's leg-spin great Shane Warne and fellow countryman Ish Sodhi. He also credits former national spinners, his mentor Tarun Nethula, and Paul Wiseman, who is the talent identification manager in New Zealand Cricket, as vital figures in his life, especially in recovering from a back surgery done by Rowan Schouten, who operated on pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, and Mayank Yadav.

"Two very important people in my career and in my life, for sure. Obviously, having the back thing was a major setback, which was a strange time in my life, I guess. Being a young spinner as well and having the nature of that injury was probably pretty rare. I'm not sure if other spinners that I've actually had to undergo that surgery."

"So, those two have been really, really important in my game to date, but also especially in my return to play. We just spoke a little bit more about how we can potentially be a little bit more upright and kind of, I guess, at the crease, make sure that I'm constantly moving forwards and over my front leg and things like that to make sure that I'm not in an extended position with my back, or harming my lower back a little bit more," he added.

The duo also worked on the technical changes around Ashok's bowling action to prevent stress on his lower back. "When I'm rotating, making sure that I'm not rotating from a lumbar extension position, which I think caused a bit of that stress along that joint and those vertebrae. So, those two have been really, really important and continue to be really important," he said.

Ashok revealed he remains in constant contact with his mentors on tours, and had messaged Nethula after New Zealand's first training session in Vadodara on Thursday. "We had our first training today, and the first thing I did when I caught the team bus was message Tarun, and he's asleep at the moment.

"But I sent him a message about how things went today, and a few feels and things like that that I was trying to do and everything. So, constantly touching base with both of them and they're very, very important people in my kind of support network," concluded Ashok, who has all the necessary ingredients to continue writing his own path of establishing himself in the New Zealand set-up across formats.

- IANS