New Delhi: There’s no doubt over the fact that Ravi Ashwin is a match-winner. The right-arm off-spinner was in tremendous form with the ball in Australia tour, where he was the spinner with most wickets in the series.
Ashwin’s form with both the bat and the ball continued in the England series, as he picked his 29th five wicket Test in the second Test in Chennai, and then followed it up with his fifth Test century to help India. Despite all his mach winning performance in the longest format, Ashwin was not included in the T20I squad for India against England.
Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir said that it is unfortunate that the India off-spinner is not a part of white-ball cricket. “Someone who is coming close to taking 400 wickets and the same time getting five Test hundreds and still not being part of the white-ball scheme of things is very unfortunate. He is just a class act.
“He is just a quality bowler and his subtle variations. The amount of cricket he has played and the longevity he has played with and still the kind of impact he has had, it is just unbelievable,” Gambhir said.
Former India pacer Ashish Nehra further praised Ashwin and said that the 33-year-old is a big impact player at home and is a good student of the game that helps him do well at the top-level.
“This is not the first time that Ravichandran Ashwin has made such a big impact when you are playing at home. When you talk about how he is so different, first thing of course he has so much experience and so much confidence when you are playing at home, when he knows these wickets are going to be helpful to him,” Nehra said.
“He is a good student of the game. We have always seen that he wants to learn. There were some fitness problems with him. We heard coach Ravi Shastri say that he is working hard on his fitness, so he can bowl long spells and he enjoys bowling long spells,” he signed off.
Ashwin last represented India in 2017 after which he and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja were overlooked for the limited-overs games, especially after the rise of left-arm spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. While Jadeja managed to make a comeback, Ashwin is yet to do.
