Adithya Ashok turns to Tamil roots while spinning a future with New Zealand
The New Zealand legspinner talks about working his way back from a career-threatening back injury, training at the CSK academy, and his hopes for the coming year
Deivarayan Muthu05-Jul-2025″.” [My way is a unique way].New Zealand legspinner Adithya Ashok has Rajinikanth’s famous punchline from inked on his bowling arm. It’s a tribute to the actor, and to Adithya’s late grandfather, with whom he watched the movie.Last month, Adithya, now 22, reconnected with his friends and family in Vellore in north-east Tamil Nadu, where he was born and raised before his family moved to New Zealand when he was around four. He was in India to hone his skills at a two-week spin camp at the CSK academy in Chennai.”Last time I was here in India, my grandfather was a bit ill, and I was fortunate to spend the last while with him and we were having a meaningful conversation and the Rajini film was on at the time,” Adithya says. “Days after he passed away, I got this tattoo because it reminded me of a special moment we shared. It’s also a connection to my Tamil roots, to Vellore, and a popular Tamil icon and a global icon as well.”The phrase also fits as a description of Adithya’s unique path to winning a New Zealand central contract. He moved to Auckland as a child when his parents got the opportunity to emigrate to New Zealand. His mother worked as a nurse at the city hospital and his father, a cricketer-turned-radiographer, worked at the Starship Children’s Hospital.After rising through the ranks in school cricket, Adithya represented New Zealand in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, where he impressed with his ability to give the ball a rip.Related
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He was earmarked as a future Black Cap from then, but major back surgery forced him out of action for almost a year starting December 2023. During this period, something as simple as getting out of a car was difficult for him.”Honestly, it was a pretty scary time for me,” he recalls. “I’ve reflected on it over the last while and I think it has changed my attitude towards understanding myself as a person, and I’m grateful to be doing something like everyday chores. I feel blessed to have the support of New Zealand Cricket through all of it. They put me in touch with one of the best surgeons in the world. He was the surgeon who operated on [Jasprit] Bumrah, but I don’t think any other spinner has had this back surgery.”I also had the support of my team in Auckland, the physio, the S&C [strength and conditioning] coach, and my family and girlfriend during one of my hardest phases of life. It was a big 12-15 months, but it’s definitely something I wouldn’t trade for anything else because it gave me so much perspective on life.”After rehab and navigating through his loads on a “trial-and-error basis”, Adithya returned to action in late 2024 and played his part in Auckland’s run to the 50-overs Ford Trophy final, which they lost to Canterbury. After handsome contributions in the 20-overs Super Smash and the four-day Plunket Shield, he has worked his way back into the New Zealand A and New Zealand set-ups. In May this year, he claimed a fourth-innings five-for to spin New Zealand A to victory against Bangladesh A in the first Test in Sylhet.Adithya’s tattoo in Tamil reads “My way is a unique way”•Deivarayan Muthu/ESPNcricinfo”I think the Bangladesh tour was amazing,” he says. “Any chance you get to contribute towards a red-ball win is something that’s very close to my heart. I really enjoy playing red-ball cricket and I think just getting the opportunity to go and play somewhere foreign, have a few weeks trying to understand the conditions and then coming up with a plan to try and be effective and then for it to work, that’s the model.”I think that’s the part that I’m most happy with – having the opportunity to do that. And coming here to India is just another opportunity to do the same. In terms of trying to hit a new level, you’re always trying to push yourself to a higher standard, but I think I’ve just enjoyed the opportunity for the first time to go somewhere different, try and implement a plan, and for that plan to come away and have some success, I think it was cool.”In Chennai, Adithya tested his variations, which include the wrong’un and the square-seam slider, on various types of surfaces against local batters and New Zealand’s Rhys Mariu and Dale Phillips (brother of international Glenn), who were also part of the camp.”We don’t get the black soil, we don’t get the [same] red soil, we don’t get the clay [in New Zealand],” Adithya says. “Understanding that on red soil you don’t have to potentially bowl as much overspin as we do back home in New Zealand. Red soil is a bit more conducive, so you can afford to bowl a little bit faster, you can afford to use a little bit more of the sidespin, square-seam deliveries that you see all the Indian bowlers bowl so well with.Adithya took ten wickets at an economy of 4.9 from seven matches in the 2024-25 Ford Trophy•Joe Allison/Getty Images”Just getting accustomed to what that feels like in hand, even something as small as using the SG ball, something that I’ve never done before, so understanding what that feels like in my hands… Do I have to grip it a certain way to get the same result? We are kind of on a fact-finding mission.”Adithya credits former New Zealand spinners Tarun Nethula, his long-time mentor, and Paul Wiseman, the current New Zealand talent identification manager, for his progress.”Tarun and Paul have been massive for me in terms of my spin bowling, and [are] two people that I’ve admired and really gone to for advice or technical help or anything,” he says. “I needed to be stronger [after the back injury], so that was a big part of it.”But from a technical aspect, we were just trying to make sure that I was a little bit more aligned at the crease, trying to make sure that my approach to the crease is a little bit more direct, keeping my front arm in play for longer and trying to make sure I put as much as I can on the ball, keep imparting a lot of overspin, especially in white-ball cricket.”Any changes I need to make in order to put more sidespin on the ball or bowl a little bit faster – I think I’m very lucky to have those two in my corner to be able to be able to WhatsApp them at any point in the day. I know that when I wake up the next morning or come back from lunch, there will definitely be a message with a lot of knowledge and wisdom, which I’m very excited to read always.”During his “fact-finding mission” at the CSK academy, Adithya got to understand different soil types and how to bat and bowl on them•Super Kings AcademyAdithya is not part of New Zealand’s T20I squad for the upcoming tri-nation series against hosts Zimbabwe and South Africa but he is set for more opportunities during the upcoming season. There’s also a T20 World Cup in the horizon, but he isn’t looking too far ahead.”My priority now is to learn from Sri [Sriram Krishnamurthy, current head coach of the Super Kings academy and a former Wellington coach], stay where my feet are at the moment and experience this phase of the calendar in Chennai and Vellore,” he says. “Then there’s an A tour to South Africa and the domestic season with Auckland.”For now, I’m looking to soak up these experiences and invest into what I’m learning here, find new things, try to take some learnings away to South Africa with the A tour, learn more things there, enjoy the culture, and from there we’ll have a look at what the next little phase looks like.”Adithya’s top priority is to add to his three internationals for New Zealand and win games for them, but he also has ambitions of playing for CSK in the IPL in the future.”Ever since I moved to New Zealand, Auckland and New Zealand has been my home and I’d love to play for New Zealand as much as I can and win trophies for them. But I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that wants to connect with my heritage and local side that aligns with Chennai. That’s something that excites me, but the foremost thing is to represent New Zealand.”Adithya has travelled a long and winding road from Vellore to New Zealand and continues to tread his own path to becoming a Black Caps regular.