Veteran India spinner R Ashwin is considered one of the best spinners in world cricket now. While everyone backed him in it, former India player turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has said that he doesn’t consider him ‘an all-time great player’ considering his SENA performances. And, now former Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal has given a rather controversial statement.
He claimed that R Ashwin was deliberately kept away from the action for some time so that he doesn’t get banned by the ICC. Notably, Ajmal was banned several times by the ICC due to his illegal bowling action as well.
“You changed all these rules and regulations without asking anyone. I was playing cricket for the last eight years. All those rules were for me. That’s it. During that period, Ashwin was out from cricket for six months. Why is that? So you can work on him and your bowler doesn’t get banned. They don’t care if a Pakistan bowler gets banned. They only care about money,” Ajmal told as quoted by Cricwick.
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“The umpire who gave Tendulkar out, he would be ready to give the statement that he got it right. And the meaning is pretty clear. The DRS can be checked manually. You can alter it any stage. I don’t know about that but even if I see it now and any umpire sees that, he will think that this will go on to hit the stumps. But that missed the stumps. Thousands of people have questioned me this, and I don’t know the answer,” he again shared.
Meanwhile, India wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik 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.
Dinesh Karthik, while speaking to Sports Today, said that there are many good things to talk about Ashwin and the recent claim of Sanjay Manjrekar was not necessary too. He said after former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar stated that 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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“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.” Karthik said.
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.”
