Ravichandran Ashwin, the Indian off-spinner, has revealed that he first heard about ‘hitting top of off’ only after he turned 25.

Ashwin was in conversation with Tim Bresnan and Richard Pyrah on the Yorkshire Cricket: Covers Off podcast where the trio discussed the difference in approach to grassroots cricket in India and England.

“In Yorkshire academy, you learn your forward defences first, you learn to hit the top of off as a bowler and then you learn your skills,” Pyrah said. “Probably that’s why we don’t have the flair players that the likes of India produce because we’re very process-driven here in England.”

In reply, Ashwin revealed that he heard of the term ‘hitting top of off’ only after turning 25. “When you said hitting the top of off and all that, the first time I heard ‘hitting top of off’ was when I was 25-year-old. I had never heard of it.”

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The off-spinner then proceeded to explain that, in India’s first-class cricket circuit, the focus is on bowling “one side of the wicket”.

“Just bowl one side of the wicket,” Ashwin said. “A large part of our first-class cricket was won with proper strategising. Mumbai, one of the most successful first-class teams in the country, it has won the title 41 times, they did the same thing. They used to bat, bat big, bowl off-side and that’s it, they used to win the competition – they’ve won it 41 long times.

“As far as I’m concerned, how first-class cricket was built upon was keeping it one side of the wicket. A lot of spin, catching close in. The first thing you’re taught when you play club cricket here is to keep close-in fielders as a spinner, where exactly you position them and that’s where we all begin and that’s why we’re built around spin.”