New Delhi: First and foremost, it’s imperative to make it articulate that a team can’t win matches unless it bowls out the opposition impressively. And a team needs to be bowled out twice in a test match. Just scoring massive hundreds doesn’t always solve the purpose.
Undoubtedly, Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli is a batsman any team will die to have in its ranks, currently. Conversely, the only one in the team presently who can match him to a large extent is star allrounder Ravichandran Ashwin.
By now, every single cricket lover in the country must have heart learnt Kohli’s batting records. Nevertheless, an insight into Ashwin’s will make the matters more clear about who between the two is more valuable to the Indian cricket team that is complete with high-class batsmen.
After his 12 wicket haul, Ashwin has scalped 71 wickets in 11 matches played this year.
Ashwin has continued at his top spot in ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers after his match haul of 12/167 in the fourth Test against England in Mumbai that helped the home side score an innings and 36 runs victory for a winning 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
Ashwin, who had touched the coveted 900-point mark for the first time in October when he had reclaimed the top ranking, has reached 904 points to run up a 37-point lead over second-placed Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka.
Ashwin’s rating is the second best-ever by an off-spinner after Muttiah Muralidaran (920), fifth best among spinners after Tony Lock (912), Derek Underwood (907) and Shane Warne (905), and the 18th in the overall list.
Ashwin, who grabbed six wickets each in the two innings in Mumbai, had finished the 2015 year-end rankings as the number-one bowler and was also at the top briefly in July this year.
He is also the top-ranked all-rounder at 483 points and enjoys a healthy lead over Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, who is on 405 points with England’s Ben Stokes third with 341 points.
What makes Ashwin special is his classy performance with the bat that bagged him 545 runs including two centuries and three half-centuries in 2016.
He is the only player to amass 500 runs and bag over 50 wickets in 2016, which clearly shows why he is more valuable to the team than anyone else, be it Kohli as well.
Source: Zee News