Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has praised the Indian team, led by Rohit Sharma for their utter dominance in world cricket. This comes after India defeated Bangladesh 2-0 in the Test series with an astonishing win in the second and final Test in Kanpur.
Despite more than two days being washed out due to rain, India forced a result in the Test match thanks to some superlative batting and amazing bowling. India bowled out Bangladesh for 233 runs and then hammered 285/9d in just 34.4 overs. India registered world records for fastest team 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 in Test cricket history.
Then Bangladesh was cleaned up for 149 runs in the second innings and India chased down 95 runs at the loss of just 3 wickets, winning the Test by 7 wickets.
Former PCB chief Ramiz Raja couldn’t help but praise the Indian team for their dominant cricket and ability to force a result in what many thought was a dead Test.
"There is no doubt that at this time the toughest team to beat at home is India. But what's making it even better for India in Test cricket under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma is the overseas victories. Not only are they competitive overseas but also win matches, jiski wajah se dhaak ban chuki hai (because of which India have established their dominance)," said Ramiz on his YouTube channel.
Ramiz, a member of Pakistan's 1992 World Cup-winning team, praised Ravichandran Ashwin's all-round abilities.
Ashwin struck a century in the first Test and contributed key runs in a partnership with Ravindra Jadeja, another spin-bowling all-rounder. Ashwin went on to take six wickets in Bangladesh's second innings, completing India's comprehensive victory.
"He (Ashwin) has not been celebrated as much as he should be as an allrounder," reckoned Ramiz. "If you look at his record, he is not less than anyone...He is a no-nonsense cricketer, who takes everything in his stride. Even when he is the 12th man or is out of the team, there are no tantrums. He understands the team's situation and his responsibility. Whenever he gets a chance, he plays brilliantly...There's a lot to learn from Ashwin. Similarly, Jadeja, who performs for his team at critical moments,” Raja said.
Ashwin has taken 527 wickets in 102 Tests besides scoring 3423 runs, including 6 hundreds and 14 fifties.
"He is opinionated but not like he does a lot of critical analysis of anything off the field. He has an intelligent take on the game, which shows in his comments," Ramiz further said about Ashwin.
Taking the example of Ashwin and Jadeja's journey in cricket, Ramiz said players in his country become flat after peaking and then hit a descending curve.
"We have seen how these two (Ashwin and Jadeja) have grown in the game. In Pakistan, the performance of players plateaus and then slides down. There are a lot of examples of that in our country...but India's great success story is that their players go on a learning curve and then continue to ascend for a long time.
They (Indian players) don't plateau or fall off because they know there is a lot of competition sitting on the bench, players who can challenge them,” Ramiz signed off.
