The Indian team is preparing up for the inaugural World Test Championship final against New Zealand which will be played at Southampton from June 18-22. While the Team India tour to the UK earlier this month, the players have finished their isolation and started practising for the summit clash. However, the veteran off-spinner R Ashwin has posted a video of him bowling at the Ageas Bowl during the practice session as well.
He captioned the video, “Good to be back out there and play some cricket again!!”
R Ashwin is also India’s leading wicket-taker in the World Test Championship and third overall with 67 wickets in 13 Test matches so far in his name as well. Notably, Pat Cummins is at the top of the list with 70 wickets in 14 matches, followed by England’s Stuart Broad with 69 dismissals in 17 Tests as well.
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However, R Ashwin has a great record against the left-handers where he is the only spinner to dismiss 200 left-handed batsmen as well. Meanwhile, New Zealand has a few left-handers in their squad – Devon Conway, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner and Neil Wagner.
On the other hand, New Zealand’s Tim Southee has 51 wickets in 10 Test matches whereas R Ashwin has 48 wickets from six Test matches against the Kiwis, five played in India, while one in New Zealand as well. Meanwhile, he has been in the news following Sanjay Manjrekar claimed that he doesn’t consider R Ashwin a great player. Manjrekar stated as Ashwin doesn’t have a 5-wicket haul in SENA countries and that’s why he doesn’t consider him a great bowler.
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But everyone supported him, including Dinesh Karthik, who has backed R Ashwin on the recent claim of his performances in the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries. He shared that Ashwin is a keen student of the game who wants to improve each day as well.
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Dinesh Karthik, while speaking to Sports Today, said: “When it comes to Ashwin, a lot of things have been said about his performances in SENA continues. I think it’s a tad bit unfair. Even if you see the way he has bowled in Australia, the pressure he has been able to create and his ability to get good batsmen out.”
He continued: “You have to understand the quality of pace bowlers we have. When we go abroad, they tend to pick up a lot of wickets. A spinner’s role, a lot of times, especially when the pitch doesn’t do much is to not give too many runs and Ashwin does it brilliantly well. When it comes to playing in India, we have seen the wickets he picks, he is an absolute legend in India and he has put up so many performances and won more Man of the Series Awards for India than anybody else in such a short time.”
