Ravi Ashwin: Touching Murali’s feat his just desserts

The unrelenting beast that India can be at home proved to be too much for Bangladesh in the end.

If there was a chance that Nazmul Hussain Shanto’s men could come out unscathed from the second Test in Kanpur, where more than two full days' play were lost to rain and inadequate drainage, it simply withered away against a quality attack.

It’s difficult to single out a performer in such a clinical team performance — and there were plenty.

There was Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring half centuries in both innings to maintain his phenomenal run since his Test debut last year.

There was Ravindra Jadeja reaching 300 Test wickets.

There was Akash Deep pressing his credentials for the Australia tour ahead.

However, it was a no brainer for the jury to select the Man of the Series — it was difficult to look beyond Ravi Ashwin.

Just ponder what the 38-year-old brought to the table series after series at home:

• a century in crisis in Chennai after coming in at No. 8, when the visiting pacers had brought down India to their knees at 144 for 6;

• a six for 88 in Bangladesh’s second innings;

• accounting for three crucial wickets while opening the bowling along with Jasprit Bumrah in Kanpur.

The 11-wicket haul

The 11-wicket haul from two Tests is so very Ashwin-esque. It got him to equal the Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan's tally of most Player of the Series awards in Tests.

Both Ashwin and and Murali have 11 Player of the Series awards in Tests, though the Chennai man has reached it quicker —  in 42 Test series as against Murali’s 50.  

The hunger to raise the bar for himself means off-spinner Ashwin misses no opportunity to throw himself over newer peaks — so much so that he has conquered his limitations in establishing himself as arguably the greatest off-spinner from the country, with due apologies to Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Harbhajan Singh.

Now on 527 wickets, Ashwin is second on the list of India’s all-time highest wicket-takers in Tests. That list is headed by Anil Kumble (619).  

Meanwhile, Ashwin fell just short of Nathan Lyon’s record of becoming the highest wicket-taker in the history of the World Test Championship (WTC) — by just two wickets.

Ashwin now has 185 wickets from 37 matches, since the WTC was introduced in 2019, while the Australian off-spinner stands at the top of the heap at 187 from 43 matches — which means Ashwin still has a chance to topple him from the top spot! Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Stuart Broad occupy the third to fifth positions, respectively.

Top wicket takers in world Test championships

Nathan Lyon: 43 Tests; 187 wickets

R. Ashwin: 37 Tests; 185 wickets

Pat Cummins: 42 Tests; 175 wickets

Mitchell Starc: 38 Tests; 147 wickets

Stuart Broad: 33 Tests; 134 wickets

The ongoing 2023–25 WTC cycle has now seen Ashwin pick up 53 wickets from just 10 Tests at an average of 21.18, with an impressive strike rate of 37.30. Josh Hazlewood is second on that list with 51 wickets.  

With the three-Test series against a surprisingly underwhelming New Zealand starting at home in two weeks’ time, Ashwin can only go upwards from here.

A bigger challenge, of course, awaits him in the five-Test series against Australia at the end of the year.