Who Is Adithya Ashok? Vellore-Born New Zealand Spinner Dismisses Shubman Gill In 1st ODI

Indian-origin leg spinner Adithya Ashok made his comeback to international cricket in Vadodara, as he was picked in New Zealand's playing XI for the first ODI against India on Sunday (January 11, 2026). The 23-year-old leg-spinner was rewarded with the prized scalp of India captain Shubman Gill to boot.

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Having made his international debut with a T20I against the United Arab Emirates in August 2023, Ashok went on to play two ODIs against Bangladesh in December that year. But a back injury hampered his career, throwing him out of action for a considerable period.

Ashok spent two weeks at the Chennai Super Kings Academy in 2025, and has a base understanding of the Indian conditions. He is the latest Indian-origin spinner to represent the Black Caps, having moved to New Zealand from Vellore in Tamil Nadu with his family as a four-year-old.

Bond With Grandfather Led To Rajinikanth Fandom

The youngster was known to be quite close to his grandfather and is still connected to his roots in TN. As a tribute to his late grandfather, PTI reported, he got a tattoo inked on his bowling arm that reads 'En vazhi thani vazhi' in Tamil ('My way is a unique way'). It is a famous line from a Rajinikanth movie that he watched with his ailing grandfather.

Ashok is a frequent visitor to India but last year was special as he got to train at the CSK Academy in Chennai. He learned about the different types of pitches (red soil, black oil) in India while back home, he is usually bowling on pace-friendly surfaces.

"On the experience in Chennai, I was very fortunate to get that opportunity. I am grateful for the opportunity from New Zealand Cricket to send me over there and with a few of our boys and learn," the leggie had said ahead of the match.

"There's a lot of stuff that we learned that was really cool. For example, black soil and red soil and how those pitches behave and things like that. I think those are the big takeaways for me and it's just kind of building my library as a cricketer which is probably the most important thing."

Relationship With Fellow Kiwi Leggies

Ashok puts the great Shane Warne at the top when it comes to role models but at home, he has got the likes of Indian-origin leg spinners Tarun Nethula and Ish Sodhi to lean on.

Sodhi will be New Zealand's lead spinner in the T20 World Cup, while Ashok will have to wait for his opportunities in the shortest format.

"If you ask me who my favourite leg-spinner of all time is, it's tough to go past Shane Warne. But growing up in New Zealand, it was really cool to see, I'm really fortunate to have the relationship with him now, but someone like Ish is big for me in terms of being like a big brother.

"He's someone that I watched growing up and in high school and intermediate primary school, high school, all of those, trying to watch him play and stuff like that. And another one I was really fortunate to watch is my current mentor Tarun," said Ashok, who also aspires to play Test cricket.

Besides Nethula, another former New Zealand cricketer Paul Wiseman has been a pillar of support for Ashok and was there by his side when he struggled with the back injury that required a surgery, quite rare for a spinner.

Track Record

Before the ODI series opener, Ashok had claimed 78 first-class wickets, with best bowling figures of 7 for 103, along with 52 List A scalps and 31 T20 wickets. He had earlier played in the Under-19 World Cup against modern Indian stars like Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma, in 2020.

(With PTI inputs)