Ashwin is one of the rare players who came into the public's reckoning through the IPL and yet was good enough to hold his own in bigger forms of cricket. For his IPL franchise, he opened the bowling, bowled at death, came on when wickets were required, and was the Man of the Series in the 2010 Champions League played in South Africa.
His success in T20 cricket earned him a call-up to the national side, ODI firsts and inevitably the Tests in 2011-12. He was a part of the winning squad in the 2011 World Cup, but rarely got a chance ahead of Harbhajan. The senior offspinner, though, soon provided him with more opportunities and Ashwin kept on building a phenomenal body of work.
