As an Aussie fan. I feared Ashwin

I am generally not a parochial cricket follower.

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I'm not like a football fan whose happiness is linked to their team's results.

The big events are an exception though: world cups and the Ashes and, from the late 90s onwards, Tests against India, especially in India.

I love the Australia-India rivalry; I think it is becoming one of the best in world sport.

And I really want Australia to beat India in Tests in India.

This is where Ravichandran Ashwin comes in: the crusher of my hopes.

It often starts promisingly. The score reaches about 0/40, hope starts to grow.

Maybe this time it will be different! And then the coverage returns from an ad break and there he is, like a stage villain.

Ashwin: ball in hand, at the top of his mark, adjusting the field, preparing to bowl. In he comes, with that idiosyncratic twitch just before delivering.

His first few balls are innocuous. And this is hardly surprising the Aussie spinners got nothing out of this pitch, why should India's? But soon enough, bang! Ashwin gets one to bite and BOWL AVG BAT AVG Ashwin 24.0 25.8 ??? 25.4 17.3 jerk; the commentators exclaim; the crowd roars.

Everything has changed.