After Ashwin’s brilliant performance on a pitch where most of the other Indian bowlers struggled and Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green struck centuries, Kumble took to social media to laud the veteran spinner.
There surely wasn’t any doubt about Ravichandran Ashwin’s class and greatness. But international cricket is unforgiving. It constantly asks questions. Requires you to evolve. Ashwin has done exactly that. Whenever he has faced a difficult situation, where things have been heavily stacked against his strengths, he has managed to find answers. It’s this very quality that has given rise to the debate whether he has already done enough to be in the same bracket as Anil Kumble, India’s leading wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs and probably among the top three greatest spinners of all time.
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On Day 2 of the ongoing India vs Australia 4th Test in Ahmedabad, Ashwin took a giant step towards that glory. On a placid batting track, in stark contrast with the pitches in the previous three Tests of the series, Ashwin managed to get six wickets by giving only 91 runs. The way he adjusted his lines, varied his pace and tried different things, a different load-up or bowling cross-seam, gave first-hand proof of his adaptability.
In the process, Ashwin also broke two records of Anil Kumble. By picking up his 32nd five-wicket haul overall and the 2th one at home, he became the bowler with most five-wicket hauls in India. Kumble and Ashwin were tied with 25 five-wicket hauls each at the beginning of this Test match.
Ashwin went past Kumble to become India’s leading wicket-taker against Australia in Test cricket. Ashwin now has 113 wickets compared to Kumble’s 111. Ashwin, in fact, is currently the joint-highest wicket-taker with Nathan Lyon in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
After Ashwin’s brilliant performance on a pitch where most of the other Indian bowlers struggled and Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green struck centuries, Kumble took to social media to laud the veteran spinner.
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“Well Bowled Ashwin, Class,” tweeted Kumble.
Ashwin also earned praise from the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly.
Asked what worked for him on the second day, when he got five wickets for 34 runs, the cricket scientist, as many affectionately call him, gave a detailed explainer.
“No one spell is better than the other. And I felt at various stages in this particular series, be it in Delhi, the numbers probably don’t give you a five or six but the ball is coming out beautifully,” he said.
Then he touched upon the technical part.
“…and whatever changes I have put in — loading (getting into delivery stride), cocking my wrists (wrist position), all those things have proved that my spells have been a lot more penetrative. Probably it was in Bangladesh and I don’t think I was at my best.
“However smaller changes that I have made has ensured that I have got enough purchase off the pitches, and it’s done more in the air than what it did in Bangladesh.”The flat deck didn’t make his job easier and he had to try certain variations in changing his load up and wrist position during the spell.
“It wasn’t a pitch where a lot was going for me so I had to use the scrambled seam, the drift and whatever was available, I would take it with both hands,” was his frank admission.
