Ravichandran Ash(win) scales newer heights ! – 450 !!

Ravichandran Ash(win) scales newer heights ! – 450 !!

 

It was over 32.5 Ashwin in his debut match hit the timber – Darren Bravo the  victim – the 1^st Test against West Indies at Kotla, Delhi on Nov 6, 2011   - India won by 5 wickets -  not many would have imagined of the heights the Man of the match would accomplish !! 

 

In that test debutant Ravichandran Ashwin became only the third Indian  player (after Pravin Amre and RP Singh) to win the Man of the Match award on debut. (Before 1990, this award wasn't declared for all matches.)  

Today at Nagpur, Ravichandran Ashwin climbed newer heights setting up   Alex Carey, who was playing expressive cricket. When the Indian spin wizard sent the Australian wicket-keeper batter back to the hut, he became the second fastest player to bag 450 wickets in Test cricket history, surpassing Anil Kumble's feat. 

**  6 – 3 – 1 – 1 – 2 *2* - decipher what ????? 

Recently in Dec 2022, a win at Mirpur  was fashioned by the most under-rated allrounder !!  Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Pollock, Richard Hadlee were bowling greats and could tonk the ball too .. .. the  smiling assassin, a spinner who can bat reliably and hit sixers too (a towering 84M onehanded hit!), Ashwin proved on that day bagging  Player of the Match.  

It was  a dicey pitch in Mirpur India started with 45/4 needing exactly 100 runs – two nightwatchmen Axar Patel 26 and Jaydev Unadkat 3 were at the crease.  As the first session moved, Unadkat departed at 56, followed by Pant at 71 and when Axar Patel left it was 7/74 with Bangladeshi Tiger on the prowl. In the engrossing play – Shreyas Iyer played sensibly and .. .. Ravichandran Ashwin rocked with handsome shots, nudges, onehanded pull and clobbering the hitting 4 too.   It was their defiant stand that withstood the collapse and led to a thin 3 wicket win.   

Couple of years back - at the start of the year, in Feb 2021,  nine years and 110 days after he made his debut against the West Indies Ravichandran Ashwin, 34 - reached another  landmark with Jofra Archer's wicket in the 24th  over on day Two of the fourth Test match in Ahmedabad. The previous  12 months had been phenomenal for the Tamil Nadu spinner as he went about picking 39 wickets in just seven Test matches. Such had been  the pace that when India's Test series in Australia started, Nathan Lyon was on 390 wickets and Ashwin on 365 - both in the race to 400. While Lyon was  static  at 399-  Ashwin  zoomed past the mark.  

India’s best bowler was improperly treated and kept out during England series. Ashwin’s rise sounds so meteoric - 6th fastest to 100 wickets; 3rd fastest to 200 wickets; 1 fastest to 300 wickets; 1st  fastest to 350 (combined)  & 2nd fastest to 400; 2^nd fastest to 450 wickets  – among all bowlers that would include all time greats like Muthiah Muralitharan, legendary Dennis Lillee, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall and all those who played Test Cricket !  

For those of us interested in statistics, only 23 Indian bowlers have taken 100 wickets or more in Test Cricket – of the list – there are 7 left arm spinners, 3 leg spinners, 8 pace bowlers and 5 off spinners.  Among the Offies – Ashwin has 451 in his 89^th ; Harbhajan Singh 417 in 103 tests; Erapalli Anandasundara Prasanna 189/ 49; Srinivasan Venkatraghavan 156/57 and Shivlal Yadav 102/35 tests.  

**  6 – 3 – 1 – 1 – 2 ** - decipher what ?????  - that is how Ravichandran Ashwin’s figures put him … 6th fastest to 100 wickets; 3rd fastest to 200 wickets; 1 fastest to 300 wickets; 1st  fastest to 350 (combined);  2nd fastest to 400  & 2^nd fastest to 450  – among all bowlers that would include all time greats like Muthiah Muralitharan, legendary Dennis Lillee, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall and all those who played Test Cricket !  

For long time, famed Indian spin quartet dominated – among them too, Srinivasa Venkatraghavan received a raw deal – not playing his matches continuously.  In the end their figures read : Bishan Bedi 266 in 67 tests; Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 242/58, Erapalli Prasanna 189/49 and Venkat 156/57.. .. .. among them Venkat had the lengthiest span and was not picked up continuously .. ..

·        Statistically fastest to 100 reads:  GA Lohman (Eng) 100/16 (played in 1896); CTB Turner 100/17 (1887); SF Barnes 100/17 (1901); CV Grimmet 100/17 (1931); Yasir Shah 100/17 (2014) and Ravi Ashwin 100/18 (2013)  

·        Fastest to 200 :  Yasir Shah 200/33; CV Grimmet 200/36; Ashwin 200/37; Dennis Lillee 200/38; Waqar Younis 200/38 & Dale Steyn 200/39  

·        Fastest to 300 : Ravichandran Ashwin 300/54; Dennis Lillee 300/56; Muralitharan 300/58; Richard Hadlee 300/61 & Malcolm Marshall 300/61.

·        Fastest to 350 : Murali 350/66; Ashwin 350/66; Richard Hadlee 350/69; Dale Steyn 350/69 & Dennis Lillee 350/70.  

·        Fastest to  400 test wickets – Murali in 72 tests; Ashwin in 77; Hadlee 80, Dale Steyn 80 & Rangana Herath in 84 !!!!  

·        Today’s accomplishment of fastest 450 wickets – elite list reads : Mutiah Muralitharan 80;  Ravichandran Ashwin 89; Anil Kumble 93; Glenn McGrath 100; legend Shane Warne 101; Nathan Lyon 112; Jimmy Anderson 115; Courtney Walsh 118; Stuart Broad 128    

Ashwin  is the only Asian player in the subcontinent to take 450 Test wickets and smash 3000 runs in Test cricket. The 36-year-old has hit 3043 runs in Test cricket and has 5 centuries to his name. Ashwin has taken five-wicket hauls 30 times.  Ashwin is now 9th in the world to take 450 Test wickets. He is in the elite list of bowlers like Murlidaran, Shane Warne, James Anderson and Anil Kumble, among others to take 450 scalps.  

Meantime, Ravindra Jadeja the hero of this innings has gotten closer to 250 wickets in Test cricket in 60 tests and has more than 2500 runs !!

 

Well done Ashwin … .. 600 is certainly within your reach !!  Nation is proud of YOU !!

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
9^th Feb 2023