Ravichandran Ashwin picked up his 29th five-wicket haul in his 76th Test match in the ongoing second match of the series against England. After the first innings effort, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar was all praises for the off-spinner from Chennai.
Ashwin picked 5/43 in England's first innings and helped restrict them to a total of 134, which was 195 behind India's first innings score. He bamboozled the English batsmen and made them toil hard not only to score runs but also to survive on the rank turner at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Sunil Gavaskar believes that the smart bowler Ashwin is, he gets unplayable in Indian conditions. The 71-year-old also predicted that the Tamil Nadu off-spinner will get to 400 Test wickets by the time this series against England comes to an end.
Almost everyone might agree with the Indian legend as Ashwin is just 8 wickets away from the mark with an innings and 2 Tests to go.
Gavaskar told Star Sports, "He is pretty much unplayable in these conditions because he knows exactly the line to bowl, the length to bowl. He’s been mixing his pace. He’s been superb. We saw that in the previous game as well, when he got six and three - nine wickets in the match and here again he is one course to get into the 390s. By the time the series is over, he will definitely have more than 400 wickets."
R Ashwin has always been someone who likes to study his game as well as the opposition's. He knows the strengths and weaknesses of the batsmen he is bowling to and it was evident when he spoke about getting Ben Stokes the same way he did way back in 2016. Gavaskar praised that quality of Ashwin too while on air.
He said, "Like a batsman does when he’s facing up to different bowlers, what he needs to do, what he needs to avoid. Similarly, Ashwin does that. He knows which ball to bowl to which batsmen, where not to bowl to a particular batsman and what the strengths and weaknesses are of a batsman."
"Ashwin certainly puts a lot of thought in his bowling. He's a very clever bowler. You can’t get to 400 wickets unless you’re thinking dismissals," the 71-year-old concluded.
