Ashwin perfects the pitch

With eight brands in the bag and an endorsement fee of over a crore a year, off-spinner R Ashwin is matching Indian batsmen at their game

Traditionally the world of Indian cricket has been skewed towards its batsmen, especially when it comes to striking big brand deals, the willow has always had the upper hand. For years batting stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and others have snagged the best deals on offer with bowlers being largely ignored. Of course there have been exceptions to the rule (think Harbhajan Singh), but these have been few and far between. Recently however, the 30-year-old right hand off-break spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has challenged the system. He is the only bowler in the top five cricketer brands,