MORE THAN A CONTEMPORARY GREAT....

For a player who made his name as a T20 specialist at the start his career to pick up as many as 300 test match wickets is as astonishing as it can get. Ashwin made a very impressive test debut in 2011 against the West Indies but couldn't quite do the job in foreign conditions over the next 12 months. His breakout series was against Australia in 2013 when he took 28 wickets and spun India to a whitewash against the mighty Aussies. He played a few away test matches without much success. It was only after 2015 World Cup that Ashwin rediscovered the flight and guile to decieve the batsman in the air. From 2015 to 2017 Ashwin took a hell of a lot of wickets on Indian pitches as well as a couple of five-fors in the West Indies. Ashwin has formed a formidable partnership with Ravindra Jadeja in home conditions. It is because of Jadeja that Ashwin can try all the variations in actual match situations. Earlier Ashwin used to be all over the place with plenty of carrom balls but now he has become a classic off spinner with majority of the balls being off breaks. Because his stock ball is the traditional off break, all his variations such as the carrom ball or the newly mastered old school arm ball have become much more effective as he doesn't bowl it too often. India have a lots of overseas tours coming up in the next 18 months and Ashwin will be a crucial bowler if not match winner as he is in home conditions. How many wickets will he take in England or South Africa is a debate for another day but make no mistake about it, we have a modern giant in our midst. Fastest to 300 wickets going past the great Denise Lillee is a serious achievement. I have read a few stories about the legendary Sydney Barnes who took 189 wickets at 16. English batsmen who suffered against him say that he used to swing the ball out and cut back in. Ashwin might not be bowling such magic deliveries but his numbers are just as fascinating with 26 five-fors in 54 test matches, that's almost a five-for every other test match! They say that spinners gain a lot of strength in their fingers later in their careers and they are at their best in early and mid 30s. Who knows, we might not have seen the best of Ashwin yet!