For his remarkable consistency in recent times, Ravichandran Ashwin has been rewarded with the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year. The Indian all rounder took home the Test Cricketer of the Year award as well.
The 30-year old has picked up 248 wickets from 44 Tests at an astounding average of 24.96 and strike-rate of 51.3. Also a more than handy lower-order batsman, he possesses 1816 runs at an average of 34.92 with 4 centuries and 10 fifties.
During India’s ongoing streak of five consecutive Test series victories, Ashwin picked up the Player of the Series award on four of those occasions. The only time he missed out on it was in the recently completed series against England which had still seen him top the wicket charts with 28 scalps at 30.25 and score 306 runs at 43.71.
Currently on a well-deserved rest, the Tamil Nadu cricketer took some time off to have an interesting question and answer session with his fans on Twitter. Among those queries included the most memorable Test wicket of his stellar career thus far.
Not surprisingly, he named the one of AB de Villiers in the 2015 Nagpur Test. Chasing 310 on a raging turner, the South African batsmen succumbed to the wiles of Ashwin and were bowled out for 185.
His seven-wicket haul included the prized scalp of de Villiers who was trapped in front by a delivery which spun away from him. As with any world-class spinner, his set-up was all the more fascinating to witness. With each delivery, Ashwin kept mixing his length smartly before unleashing a carrom ball that caught the batsman by surprise.
There was another tricky question pointing towards his overseas record. To a fan who expressed his wish to see him perform overseas as well, Ashwin cheekily alluded to his performances in countries like Sri Lanka and West Indies whilst pondering whether tours those places have been organized by road.
When asked about his ‘partner in crime’ in the Indian dressing room, the thinking player responded with the names of Cheteshwar Pujara and KL Rahul. Not surprisingly, he insisted once again that the Australian tour of 2014/15 was the turning point in his career.
Here is a compilation of a few tweets from Ashwin:
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
