India’s premier right arm-off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin would be aiming to dictate the terms in his 100th Test match. Ravichandran Ashwin has been playing professional cricket since more than a decade and has got a lot of variations to fox the batters and to add to that, he also has a pretty good batting record in Test arena as well.
Head coach Rahul Dravid & skipper Rohit Sharma would be keen to win the 5th Test Match as we should not forget that ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2023-25 cycle) points are at stake at too. We all witnessed how India lost ICC WTC 2019-21 & 2021-23 finals against New Zealand & Australia and due to which all of the hard work went into the vain.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s phenomenal test records
Ravichandran Ashwin’s record in Tests is phenomenal. His 507 wickets in 99 matches were achieved at an average of 23.91 and a fabulous strike rate (balls bowled to pick up a wicket) of 51.3.
The bulk of the 507 wickets – 354 of them to be precise – were achieved in India, the highest for any Indian bowler. The next best are Anil Kumble (350), Harbhajan Singh (265) and Kapil Dev (219). Here’s a look at the average and strike rate for Ashwin venue-wise. While he has a great record in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies, his average (39.4) and strike rate (83.7) in the pace-friendly SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries pale in comparison to other venues.
Yet another telling statistic for Ashwin’s wickets is that nearly half of them are of left handed batsmen (LHB).Ravichandran Ashwin has been lethal against southpaws, picking 252 (the highest for any bowler) of them in his total tally of 507. The percentage of LHB that Ravichandran Ashwin has picked up – 49.7% is also the highest.
It is no wonder that current England captain Ben Stokes (12 dismissals), Australia’s David Warner (11), England’s Alastair Cook (9) and New Zealand’s Tom Latham (8) are the batters whose wickets Ravichandran Ashwin has picked the most. All of them are left-handed. More importantly, among the 15 batters who got out to Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling the most, only three – England’s Jimmy Anderson, Australia’s Nathan Lyon and South Africa’s Morne Morkel bat in the lower order, an indication of the spin maestro’s prowess.
Ravichandran Ashwin a standout amongst all the current spinners
In general, fast bowlers have had a better strike rate than spin bowlers. But Ravichandran Ashwin had the best strike rate among spinners who picked up 120 wickets in their career, which is even better than the two highest wicket takers, M Muralitharan (55.05, 800 wickets) and Shane Warne (57.49, 708 wickets).
When you look at overseas records on the other hand (click on the dropdown to choose “Overseas”), it is clear that Warne (54.7) among spinners and Dale Steyn (45.5) among pacers had the best strike rates for bowlers who picked up at least 150 overseas wickets. Ashwin is not far behind, with a strike of 62.1 per wicket.
Among Indians, his compatriot Ravindra Jadeja’s strike rate comes closest. The tremendous strike rate has allowed Ashwin to pick up 500 wickets quite quickly, in just 98 Tests, relative to other bowlers.
India’s magnificent off spinner wizard Ravichandran Ashwin opens up ahead of his 100th test at Dharamshala.
In the pre match press conference , India’s veteran set to play his 100th Test match , Ravichandran Ashwin said he has enjoyed his tussles with New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, Australia’s Steve Smith and England’s Joe Root on the field . Speaking to the media ahead of his landmark test match, R Ashwin opened on the on-field battles he has enjoyed over the years.
“I have loved bowling to Steve Smith, Williamson and Joe Root. They are some of the finest batters going around the world now,” Ashwin was quoted as saying in a PTI report.
The 37 year old went on to praise the domestic giants like Subramaniam Badrinath and Mithun Manhas who helped him honed up his skills challenging him during his time in formative years and domestic career.
“When I played first-class, I had the privilege of bowling to some of the gun batters of spin – I have bowled to S Badrinath at the Tamil Nadu nets, and he was one of the finest batters of spin, then Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia,” Ashwin said.
“These are some of the greatest batters of spin who I would have not wanted to encounter in international cricket. They were my finishing school before I went on to play international cricket. I’d like to take my hat out to them because they gave me some valuable lessons,” the seasoned off-spinner added.
Ravichandran Ashwin has played 155 First Class games scalping 749 wickets at an average of 24.94.
Ravichandran Ashwin disagrees with a theory that his white ball success especially under MSD at CSK led to his India debut
After making a mark for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Ravichandran Ashwin made his limited overs debut for India. His test debut followed a year later . While many critics reckons that the off spinner got a nod for national selection on the basis of white ball exploits, R Ashwin completely disagrees with this allegations.
“I am treading a very careful line of not making this a punch, but it is more of a lack of understanding when you say that I came through the T20 format. I had a good 30-40 matches in first-class cricket before I made it to the Indian team,” he countered.
“In the same year I made my Test debut (in 2011), I got a fifer in the Rest of India game for ROI side in the Irani Trophy. I had played 3-4 seasons of club cricket in Chennai. You might say there’s a standard difference, but I played 3-4 years of club cricket there, probably mentored by seniors, told where I made mistakes, corrected my discipline, bowled long spells,” he added.
On his T20 success, Ravichandran Ashwin said that it happened more by an accident and he got selected for Chennai Super Kings on the basis of a five wicket haul in a club game at Chennai.
“It really builds your resolve as a cricketer when you do all those things. T20 happened by accident. I didn’t know what T20 cricket was like. Played SMAT in 2008 for the first time, we were the winners. Got a CSK contract, which also happened because I got a fifer in a 50-over game playing club cricket in Chennai,” the Tamil Nadu cricketer said.
“A lot of things need to go your way when you have to get a breakthrough and also continue playing for a so many years. I am indebted for all those things, but I definitely wouldn’t agree that I came through the white-ball formats. It was the other way round,” the veteran bowled concluded.
In 99th tests Ravichandran Ashwin has claimed 507 test wickets only second to Anil Kumble’s 619 test wicket mark and also has 35 -5 -wicket hauls to his name. Come 100th test at Dharamshala, the Indian offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin would love to make it special with a match winning performance and it would be an icing on the Legends celebration if India wins the series 4-1 at Dharamshala gathering valuable WTC points to their kitty.