Published: Sep 17, 2016, 09:52 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 17, 2016, 09:52 AM (IST)
India’s tall off-spinner and right-hand batsman – Ravichandran Ashwin, turns 30 today. In international cricket there have been many successors with carrom ball action, but none who have been better than Ashwin. He proved his worth since his debut in 2010 with his entry in One-Day International (ODI) cricket against Sri Lanka. However, he received all the accolades in 2011 when he took nine wickets in his maiden Test against West Indies, the second-highest by an Indian debutant after Narendra Hirwani’s 16 wickets. Ashwin also won the Man of the Match award for the same. Since then there was nothing that stopped Ashwin.
He secured nine five-fors in his first 16 Tests and in 2013 he broke the record of Erapalli Prasanna’s Indian record for fastest to 100 Test wickets in his 18th game. The story was different when he had to replicate his success in the sub-continent conditions overseas. Ashwin was unable to bowl out South Africa at Johannesburg in 2013. Since then he was benched out for six Tests and was also not picked in squad for Adelaide Test in late 2014. In 2015, he was back into action tweaking his form a bit and smiled away to glory with 31 wickets in Test series against South Africa. His recent success in West Indies tour was his two centuries and scalped 17 wickets at 23.17. He also bagged his sixth Man of the Series award in his 37th match, which is the most by any Indian.
As for Twenty20 (T20I) cricket, Ashwin grabbed the spotlight through Indian Premier League (IPL). Under MS Dhoni’s captaincy, Ashwin has a key role for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and bowled in death. He was also the Man of the Series in the 2010 Champions League T20 in South Africa. That lead to his call in the national side. He has picked 100 wickets in IPL and now that CSK has been banned for two years, he was once again picked in Dhoni’s new franchise Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS). As for T20Is, Ashwin has grabbed 52 wickets out of 45 matches. ALSO READ: Ravichandran Ashwin vs West Indies: Not much to read into
With regards to ODIs, he was part of the squad that won the ICC World Cup 2011 and has hence carried the burden of the Indian spin department on his shoulders. In ODIs, he has bagged 142 wickets at an average of 31.73. With India playing next against New Zealand at home from September 22, Ashwin will be expected to showcase the similar stance as against West Indies.
