IND vs BAN: R Ashwin’s achievement, mixed together with his batting expertise, makes him a contender for greatest spinner ever.
In Test match cricket, it is often believed that spinners will bowl more than the pacers, and hence will have a poorer strike-rate, when it comes to bagging wickets. But then, R Ashwin is a little different in this regard. The wily off-spinner, over the years, has not only shown his tremendous knack to pick up wickets, but with an excellent strike-rate, even better than most fast-bowlers.
During the first IND vs BAN Test in Chennai, after slamming his sixth ton, Ashwin got into the groove with the ball as well. With Shakib Al Hasan’s wicket on the fourth day, he surpassed Courtney Walsh, in the list of most wickets in Tests. While the West Indian legend has 519 wickets in 132 matches, Ashwin surpassed him in only his 101st match. Yes, that’s right. Ashwin has a strike-rate of 50.7 as compared to that of Walsh’s 57.8.
R Ashwin Better Than Most
In fact, if we take a closer look at the list of bowlers with most Test wickets, Ashwin has the second-best strike rate behind South Africa’s Dale Steyn – 42.4. He has a better rate of picking wickets than Muttiah Muralidaran, Shane Warne, James Anderson, Anil Kumble, Stuart Broad, and Nathan Lyon.
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