Ravi Ashwin flying the flag high as an off-spinner: Graeme Swann

Graeme Swann was arguably the best bowler in the world between the period of 2008 and 2013. He relied more on traditional loopy off spins and the natural variation to account for 255 Test victims in 60 Tests. An elbow surgery cut short his international career as he was forced to retire in the midst of a horrendous Ashes campaign in 2013 down under.

England are currently one of the best ODI sides going around and are tipped as the favourites to lift the Champions Trophy. They were an average ODI team for a number of years until things changed post their World Cup 2015 debacle. Talking about his country’s ODI revival on British Radio, Swann acknowledged that England were old-fashioned.

“The main reason is picking guys who are specialist one-day players. In the era that I played, if you played in the Test side, you played in the one-day team. We played a brand of old-fashioned cricket. When you are doing well in one form of the game, like we were in Test cricket for a long time, you rely on that and forget about the others, almost sub-consciously. Teams like Australia and South Africa would get 400s. We were thinking it would be great to get 300.”

‘Ashwin Doesn’t bowl bad balls’

The former Ashes winner spoke about Ashwin’s remarkable rise in the recent past. Swann said that he always had the talent and doesn’t bowl too many bad deliveries.

“I’ve always seen just how talented he was. His variations aren’t out of this world, his carrom ball doesn’t really spin. He’s not invented new weapons like Shane Warne pretended to all the time. He just bowls no bad balls. He’s metronomic, just brilliant. Also, the more wickets you get, the more your reputation grows, and people start playing the reputation rather than the ball coming at them.”

‘Leave Root alone’

Following Alistair Cook’s resignation as the captain of the England Test side, Joe Root was appointed as the leader in the longest format of the game. He joins contemporary modern-greats Kohli, Williamson and Steven Smith, who are all captains of their respective side and also hailed the best batsmen in the world. Swann wasn’t too impressed by Root’s promotion as he thought he could be England’s Tendulkar.

“I don’t actually agree with that because Joe is potentially our best ever batsman. I’d love to just leave him alone, not burden him with the captaincy. Let him be our Sachin Tendulkar. The pressures of captaincy are all-encompassing. I don’t think it’s going to help his batting. I hope I’m wrong and hope that he goes on to greater things like Virat Kohli and Steve Smith. But I’d have let Stuart Broad do it for a while.”

He highlighted the need of a brilliant leg-spinner fo the pedigree of Shane Warne to emerge in international cricket. Swann mentioned that leg-spin is the most difficult aspect of cricket and cannot be taught.

“International cricket is begging for a match-winning leg-spinner again. We need a Shane Warne to come along. He is the best bowler ever to have played the game, without a doubt. Because leg-spin is impossible to bowl. You can’t learn it. You’re either born to do it, or you aren’t. What any team would do for Shane Warne! But there are some good off-spinners around the world. Ashwin’s flying the flag. Nathan Lyon’s a good bowler”

Swann went on to pick 104 wickets from 79 games in ODI cricket. He was involved in three Ashes triumphs and joined hands with Monty Panesar to win a historic Test series in India back in 2012. An elbow injury forced him to retire prematurely from the game. Swann says that he wouldn’t have retired otherwise unless he “dropped dead”. He misses the game immensely.

The off-spinner was a part of the squad when England lifted the World T20 in 2010 in the West Indies which still remains the only ICC Trophy in England’s cabinet.