Ace India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed the person from whom he learnt the skills to bowl the carrom ball — a delivery through which he has bamboozled many batsmen across formats.

“The first time I went to play a tennis ball game, I was batting. There was this guy who was bowling with a proper action, getting beautiful drift and getting the ball to go nicely out and in. Till today I can’t find where the guy is but I haven’t seen a better bowler who can bowl both in and out than him in my life. His name is SK. He was the one from whom I learnt that ball,” Ashwin said on a Cricbuzz show.

“Basically he was the one who made me look like an absolute idiot on that particular day. I was a big thing around the tennis ball circuit as a batsman then, so I said I need to learn from this guy. So I used to go every morning, and he used to come and teach me for about 10-15 days,” he added.

Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis is touted to have introduced this delivery during his debut in 2008, earning him the tag of being a ‘mystery spinner’ for quite some time.