“This guy bowls just like Ashwin” Matt Renshaw said, as heard by Cricbuzz’s Bharat Sundaresan, when the left-hander faced Baroda’s Mahesh Pithiya in the nets in the KSCA Stadium in Alur, where the Australians have set up their preparatory camp ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India starting February 9.
“Well bowled Ash” Renshaw added.
There were some local spinners who had turned up to bowl to the Australian batters who are leaving no stone unturned in order to prepare themselves to face the likes of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav in what is going to be a really challenging series for them, starting with an expected raging turner in Nagpur.
The Australian team management had themselves picked up Mahesh Pithiya, “who had caught Smith’s attention, especially after Renshaw had noticed the obvious similarities in bowling mechanisms between the youngster and Ravichandran Ashwin,” Sundaresan writes.
“So much so that Smith paused his session, observed Pithiya’s next delivery to Renshaw keenly, sounded very impressed with what he saw, and immediately wanted to jump in and face the young Baroda off-spinner. And so he did.”
The Australian team management had seen Mahesh Pithiya’s bowling videos from the domestic season and called him up to live and travel with the Australian team for their time in this preparatory phase.
THe 21-year-old Mahesh Pithiya hails from Junagad, Gujarat.
Mahesh Pithiya is the Ashwin ‘impersonator’ that the Australian team are using to get more accustomed to Ashwin’s action.
Since Mahesh Pithiya had an action similar to Ashwin, he was since his childhood termed by the great Indian off-spinner’s name. “I was rarely called by my original name. It was always Ashwin,” Pithiya says.
In Baroda, he was spotted by the Pathan brothers and has worked closely with Yusuf Pathan. And here is now, bowling to the likes of Steve Smith, one of the greatest-ever.
“It is my dream to meet him[Ashwin] some day and I hope that happens soon,” the youngster says.
Mahesh Pithiya played his 4 first-class matches this season for Baroda, picking up 8 wickets at 30.
Australia would remember how Ashwin has tormented them in their last two tours in 2017 and 2013. Against Australia in the two home series in 2013 and 2017, in 8 Tests, Ashwin took 50 wickets at 23 with 5 five-wicket hauls. Anything they could take from their sessions with Mahesh Pithiya will be beneficial.
