3 spinners who are as good as Ravichandran Ashwin

#1 Yasir Shah

Yasir Shah has been the most prolific wicket-taker in international cricket in recent years

While Lyon and Herath can stake claim to being at par with Ashwin based on parameters of performances that cannot always be enumerated, the one man who can actually break the latter's main records and therefore appear as a more visible challenger to his supremacy is Pakistan’s Yasir Shah.

His numbers are as staggering as Ashwin and he has been picking up wickets at an even greater pace than his Indian counterpart.

With 165 Test victims in just 28 matches, he has a great chance of breaking Clarrie Grimmett’s record of being the fastest to pick 200 Test wickets (36 matches). If he does achieve this, he can also threaten Ashwin’s record of fastest to 300 wickets.

What make Yasir Shah’s record look even more impressive is that he has hardly bowled on dustbowls, the sort of which are often seen in India and even Sri Lanka these days.

The pitches in UAE, where Pakistan play their home matches, give a better chance to the batsmen to succeed which explains his slightly higher average of 29.44 compared to his Asian rivals but the strike rate of 56.2 is not too far away from Ashwin’s.

He also produced two match-winning performances in England which boost his credentials though his experience in Australia was horrendous.

So, of all the bowlers operating in the world today and not just spinners, if there is one man whom Ashwin may be keeping a track on it will be Yasir Shah. Certainly a strong rival to Indian wizard.