Ajith Ram, the old-school spinner who loves bowling long spells

No R Ashwin? No Washington Sundar? No problem for Tamil Nadu. They still have immense spin depth, with R Sai Kishore leading the line. There was no room for Manimaran Siddharth in Tamil Nadu's Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy squad, even though he was snapped up by Lucknow Super Giants for INR 2.4 crore after a bidding war with Royal Challengers Bangalore. Then there is Ajith Ram, who is more of an old-school left-arm fingerspinner who relishes bowling long spells.

Ajith isn't as tall as Sai Kishore but can create sharp angles from wide of the crease and is particularly accurate with his lengths. On Sunday, he created such a sharp angle from left-arm around that he burst through Mayank Agarwal's defences and knocked out his leg stump for 11 in Karnataka's second innings at Chepauk. Ajith wheeled away for almost 20 overs, returning 5 for 61 as Karnataka folded for 139, leaving Tamil Nadu a target of 355. This, after Ajith had taken 4 for 75 in nearly 30 overs in the first innings.

"So, my kind of bowling style is to bowl long spells," Ajith had said on Saturday. "So, when I have to bowl long [spells] I have to give confidence to the captain that I can bowl tight enough and not leak runs. At the same time, I'm a bowler who can support the bowler at the other end. On a particular day, if both the bowlers bowl well, anyone can get wickets. That has been my pattern so far.

"I definitely rely more on bowling the stump line. So that anything that happens off the wicket will be beneficial for me. If the batsman misses, I will get him lbw, or if it turns, there's a good chance for me to get him at slips or the keeper."

Ajith had been on the fringes of the Tamil Nadu Ranji side for a while before he established himself as their second spinner behind Sai Kishore in the 2022-23 season, when he picked up 19 wickets in four games at an average of 20.36. He has followed it up with 27 wickets in five games at just 13.03 this season.

"I've always dreamt of playing for the Tamil Nadu [senior team] and it's been my goal for a long time," Ajith said. "Right from playing Under-19s and Under-23s and everything...so I was always looking forward to getting better every day. Luckily I got the chance last season after doing well for three-four years in Under-19 and Under-23, and it has been going well for me."

Ajith could have cut short Devdutt Padikkal's first innings at 77 on the opening day had M Mohammed not dropped a catch at long-on. Padikkal went on to finish on 151 and almost batted Tamil Nadu out of the game. But at one point, it seemed like Ajith would never be bowling to top batters like Padikkal. So, when he was not on Tamil Nadu's radar, he enrolled himself into an MBA course just to get some game-time by playing university cricket.

"That [The MBA degree] is just for playing university games and something like that," Ajith said. "It was not from my side to study and pursue MBA; it was just to get some extra games when I'm not playing in the Ranji Trophy. During the time, we will have our inter-college matches and that will be a good opportunity for me."

Ajith believes that his stints at university cricket have been useful for Ranji Trophy. "I personally take it as good match practice because all good cricketers play for the colleges and universities," he said. "So, definitely it's good match practice - like seeing them play there and coming here... I've played against three-four Karnataka guys in university games. So, it's a good experience to learn more."