Ravichandran

Ravichandran Ashwin (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team. He currently plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket and Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He is the fastest Indian bowler (also in some records the joint-fastest in the world) to reach the 50-, 100-, 150-, 200-, 250-, 300-, 350-,400- and 450- wicket mark in Test cricket in terms of number of innings.In 2016, he became the third Indian to win the ICC Cricketer of the Year award. He is currently the highest-ranked spinner in Test cricket, and the highest-ranked Test bowler for India on the ICC Player Rankings. He has won nine Man of the Series awards in Test cricket, which is the highest by an Indian cricketer. He has also scored 5 Test centuries with a highest score of 124. Ashwin with his team won both the 2011 Cricket World Cup, and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, where he was the bowler of the final over in which England failed to chase the target.Having achieved little success as an opening batsman at junior-level cricket, Ashwin dropped down the order and turned into an off-break bowler. He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in December 2006 and captained the team the following season. However, it was not until the 2010 Indian Premier League in which he played for the Chennai Super Kings that he came into the limelight with his economical bowling and earned his maiden international call-up in the limited-overs formats in June 2010. He was the leading wicket-taker and player of the tournament of the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa. He was also part of the Indian squad that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Later that year, he made his Test debut against West Indies and became the seventh Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut. He took two five-wicket hauls and scored a century in that series and won the player of the series award.Ashwin continued to succeed in the subcontinent. In a home Test series against Australia in 2013, he took 29 wickets, the most by any Indian bowler in a four-match Test series. The same year, he took his 100th Test wicket in his 18th match, becoming the fastest Indian bowler to the milestone and the fastest in the world in over 80 years. In 2017, playing his 45th Test, Ashwin became the fastest bowler to pick up 250 Test wickets, bettering Dennis Lillee, who had achieved the landmark in 48 Tests.[4] In October 2019, in his 66th Test match, Ashwin became the joint-fastest bowler, along with Muttiah Muralitharan, to take his 350th Test wicket.He is fastest among Indian bowlers to reach 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 and 450 test wickets milestone.Ashwin is ranked number 1 among bowlers and 2 among all-rounders in Test cricket as of March 2023.There has been a constant question mark over the use of technology in this edition of the Indian Premier League. Ultra-Edge have picked edges that didn’t exist and vice-versa while on one instance, there was no DRS available due to a power failure. If that wasn’t enough, what transpired during the IPL 2022 Qualifier between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals left everyone puzzled. The speedometer showed R Ashwin bowling a delivery at, wait for it, 131.6 kph.R Ashwin took the tricks and skills he learned playing tennis-ball cricket on the streets of Chennai, particularly the soduku ball, a finger-flicked legbreak, to Test cricket, where he became perhaps the leading offspinner of the first quarter of the 21st century.All through his career Ashwin has been a cricket nerd with a deep appreciation of the nuances of the game and an acute knowledge of his craft. And it was that sharp brain, along with the carrom ball, an equally good arm ball, and masterly control over his offbreaks that made him a quintessential limited-overs spinner early in his career. It was in Test cricket, though, that he became a force after he brought the full scope of his talents to bear on it.His success was desperately needed by India in the time after Anil Kumble retired and Harbhajan Singh was on the wane. Ashwin took nine wickets in his maiden Test, in which he was Player of the Match. In his first 16 Tests he collected nine five-fors, and he went on to be the fastest to 300 wickets and the second fastest to 400, behind only Muthiah Muralidaran.Among the highlights of Ashwin’s Test career: 30 five-fors and counting, 90-odd wickets apiece against both Australia and England, and over 50 wickets a year four times. He reached his zenith in the 2016-17 home season, when he took 27 wickets in a three-Test series against New Zealand, 28 in five matches against England, six in a game against Bangladesh, and 21 against Australia in four Tests.Ashwin was picked by Chennai Super Kings in the IPL in 2009, and was one of the rare players who came into the public’s reckoning through the IPL and proved himself good enough to have great success in Test cricket. He spent six seasons at CSK, winning the title twice, bowling at the top and the death, and coming on when wickets were required. He was the Man of the Series in the 2010 Champions League in South Africa.